March 2023 – Page 11 – The Tarbabys Blog

Why this Mediterranean staple could help you live longer

The Telegraph

Why this Mediterranean staple could help you live longer

Abigail Buchanan – March 14, 2023

The latest study extolling the virtues of the Mediterranean diet has come this week from Newcastle University. Researchers studied data from 60,000 people, and found that eating plenty of fruit, vegetables, legumes, fish and olive oil, and very little red and processed meat, could significantly cut your dementia risk.

Along with this, they suggested that to maximise the benefits of the Med way of life, we should be having twice weekly servings of sofrito – a simple sauce made from just four or five ingredients, that is the bedrock of Mediterranean cuisine, used in sauces, soups and stews, and as a marinade for fish and meat. The ingredients vary slightly by region, but it always starts with a base of workaday staples: onions, tomatoes and olive oil. In Spain, it usually contains garlic and peppers, in Italy, celery and carrots.

Sofrito was also identified as a key component in the ‘perfect’ diet based on findings from an influential, long-running study conducted in Spain, which informed Newcastle University’s research. Its importance is “based around its ubiquity in Mediterranean cooking,” says Dr Oliver Shannon, a lecturer in human nutrition and ageing at Newcastle who led the recent study into diet and dementia risk. Few people got a ‘perfect’ diet score in the study, but “even one or two small changes to an individual’s diet could make a big difference.”

sofrito chopped vegetables - Getty — sofrito chopped vegetables – Getty

One of the crucial ingredients for brain health is plenty of olive oil, which is abundant in sofrito, and has a “healthy profile of fats – mono and poly-unsaturated fatty acids,” says Shannon.

“It’s also rich in polyphenols, these ‘plant defence’ compounds that seem to be really good at protecting the body against oxidative stress. There’s some really good evidence now that that contributes to the cardiovascular and cognitive benefits of the Mediterranean diet.”

A diet that includes two dishes cooked with sofrito per week has broader health benefits, as it means that you’re cooking a healthy meal from scratch and not taking shortcuts or eating fast food, says nutritionist Jane Clarke. But the tomato base provides a specific brain boost.

“Tomatoes contain an antioxidant called lycopene that reduces what we call ‘free radical damage’ – the damage that the environment, our genes and lifestyle can have on our body – and reduces the risk of certain types of dementia,” she says. It’s lycopene that gives tomatoes their bright red colouring.

“What’s great about tomatoes is that the lycopene content increases and becomes more readily available to the body when it’s cooked. And you’ve lost the water so you’ve got a more concentrated source.”

Some suggest that cooking tomatoes with olive oil – as is often the case in a Mediterranean diet – further increases the concentration of this potent antioxidant. An Italian study showed that the absorption of lycopene was three times greater from cooked tomatoes in comparison to raw.

Onions and garlic get their smell from allicin, another anti-inflammatory ingredient, says Clarke. Plus, an Italian soffritto typically also contains carrots and celery. “Carrots contain beta-carotene, an antioxidant, and like the tomato, it’s more efficiently absorbed when it’s cooked,” she says. Beta-carotene, which is also present in tomatoes, helps support a healthy immune system.

The best news of all is that sofrito is the base of countless delicious dishes, from Spanish paella to a traditional Italian bolognese. It can also be used as a condiment. ‘We use it in many different dishes [but] you can have it as it is, with a fried egg on top, for example,’ says Jose Jara, the Spanish head chef of JOIA, an Iberian restaurant in Battersea, London. He regularly serves a sofrito sauce with tapas dishes.

Preparing sofrito is easy, but requires a fair amount of chopping to finely dice the ingredients and then a long, slow simmer. You can buy a frozen sofrito (or soffritto) base from supermarkets, or buy the ready-made sauce from Waitrose and Ocado.

However, it’s best homemade, and can be batch-cooked and stored in the freezer. ‘The base of [our] sofrito is olive oil, onion, red or green pepper, tomato, garlic and paprika,’ says Jara, although depending on who’s cooking it, they might add one or two extra ingredients, such as herbs.

Cereal before bed? Food makers push ‘sleep’ snacks at night.

The Washington Post

Cereal before bed? Food makers push ‘sleep’ snacks at night.

Anahad O’Connor and Teddy Amenabar – March 14, 2023

(Linnea Bullion for The Washington Post)

You’ve heard of breakfast cereal. But what about bedtime cereal?

Post Consumer Brands, the cereal company known for Raisin Bran, Grape-Nuts and Fruity Pebbles, has launched a new line of cereals that it wants you to include in your nightly sleep routine.

The cereal of crunchy flakes and almonds, called Sweet Dreams, comes with a description that reads like a box of herbal tea, touting notes of lavender and chamomile, as well as vitamins and minerals intended to support your body’s production of the sleep hormone melatonin. But Sweet Dreams cereal also contains as much as 13 grams of added sugar from cane sugar, corn syrup, “invert sugar” and molasses, which according to studies can be detrimental to your nightly sleep.

The company says its goal is to help people establish healthy nighttime habits “by providing a nutrient dense before-bed snack” that supports your sleep routine.

But some studies have found that eating late-night meals, including those with a lot of added sugar, actually can worsen your sleep and increase your risk of obesity. Although some of the vitamins contained in Post’s new cereal can influence your body’s melatonin levels, experts say it’s not clear that they’ll have more than a minor impact, especially when consumed in the evening.

“You’re not going to eat this at 7 p.m. and have it boost your melatonin secretion at 9 p.m. to help you fall asleep,” said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the director of the Sleep Center of Excellence at Columbia. “It’s not going to be a quick-fix two hours before bedtime.”

Sweet Dreams is one of a growing number of nighttime snacks marketed to a large segment of sleep-deprived consumers in search of better shut-eye.

Studies show that more than half of all adults in the United States experience difficulty falling asleep, and 1 in 5 have insomnia. Marketing late-night meals as sleep enhancers is a way for the food industry to achieve one of its longtime objectives: To boost sales by creating a so-called fourth meal that follows dinner.

“It’s a potential new eating occasion,” said Nicholas Fereday, the executive director of food and consumer trends at investment firm Rabobank. “If they can somehow turn it into a ritual, and it becomes more habit rather than the occasional thing, they’ll start getting their repeat purchases.”

Expanding into late-night meals is a timely move for the cereal industry, which has lost ground in its fight over “share of stomach” to other breakfast-food competitors.

Despite an uptick in sales during the pandemic, cold cereal has largely been on the decline as breakfast habits have changed, with more people either skipping breakfast, eating foods on the go or opting for “healthier” meals – such as eggs and Greek yogurt – that are higher in protein and lower in sugar.

Other food companies are catering to late-night snackers. Nightfood sells “sleep-friendly” cookies and ice creams with vitamin B6, magnesium, zinc and other ingredients.

Numerous candy bars and chocolates infused with melatonin, herbal extracts and other ingredients claim to help you sleep. One company sells “sleepy chocolate” candy bars with magnesium, melatonin, and a blend of botanicals “designed to help you fall asleep faster and more soundly.” You can wash it down with PepsiCo’s Driftwell brand of still-water, which contains L-theanine and magnesium and is marketed to help you wind down before bed.

Scientists know that what you eat plays a role in how you sleep. Diets high in sugar, saturated fat and simple carbohydrates like white bread are associated with poorer sleep. Large studies show that eating a diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and foods high in unsaturated fats like fish, olive oil, nuts and avocados is linked to better sleep.

One reason a diet high in plant foods may help: Almost all plants, including tomatoes, olives, rice and walnuts, contain melatonin in varying concentrations. And a healthy diet provides nutrients that support the production of melatonin, such as zinc, magnesium and B vitamins. To synthesize melatonin, your body needs tryptophan, an amino acid, which you can find in milk, salmon, tuna, nuts and poultry.

St-Onge has found in her research that people who eat a lot of simple carbs wake up more frequently throughout the night.

But eating complex carbs keep blood sugar levels stable throughout the night, she said, resulting in better sleep. Some of her favorite “sleep-promoting foods” are cruciferous and green leafy vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, olive oil and lentils.

She recommends not eating too close to bedtime. But you also shouldn’t go to bed hungry. If you need a nighttime snack, she suggests eating something light, such as a bowl of plain yogurt with fresh fruit.

Erin Hanlon, a research associate professor at the University of Chicago and behavioral neuroscientist who studies sleep, said it’s fascinating to see companies marketing foods for a better night’s sleep. But, she adds, a box of sugary cereal might not be “the best way forward.”

Hanlon suggested dimming lights and limiting screen exposure, because light stops the brain from releasing melatonin.

Logan Sohn, a senior brand manager at Post, said the company recommends eating Sweet Dreams cereal as part of a relaxing bedtime routine that includes things like switching off electronic devices and practicing meditation.

As with any snack, people should consume it in moderation “while being mindful of other added sugars they are consuming throughout the day,” he said.

Tamarah Logan, a 56-year-old writer in Los Angeles, was shopping at Walmart last month when she spotted the blue box of Sweet Dreams with the tagline, “part of a healthy sleep routine.”

Logan said she has long struggled with sleep, getting only four or five hours of uninterrupted slumber each night. She doesn’t want to take supplements. So, she bought a box of Sweet Dreams Honey Moonglow, which she has been eating instead of dessert.

“I’ll have a bowl of cereal several hours before bedtime, instead of dessert or instead of a cookie with my tea,” she said. “I’m a kid of the ’70s. I grew up on boxed cereal. It’s comfort food for me.”

Analysts calculate how much Ukrainian territory Russia captured in one month of offensive

Ukrayinska Pravda

Analysts calculate how much Ukrainian territory Russia captured in one month of offensive

Ukrainska Pravda – March 14, 2023

In February of this year, Russia was able to seize territory that does not exceed 0.04% of the area of Ukraine.

Source: Business Insider with reference to military analysts

Details: According to the newspaper, the Institute for the Study of War told Insider that its mapping data showed that Russia had gained just 0.039% more territory in Ukraine between 31 January and 28 February.

At the same time, according to Business Insider, according to the war Mapper tracking group, Russia managed to increase the territory it controls in Ukraine by less than 0.01% in February, the same month it launched its long-awaited new offensive, experts say.

The ISW told Insider that “both numbers are small enough” that a tiny miscalculation could be why they are different, but that ultimately, both accurately portray the limited state of Russia’s territory gains.

“Russia gained this tiny amount of land while losing thousands of soldiers and hemorrhaging military equipment,” the publication concludes.

Texas announces takeover of Houston schools, stirring anger

Associated Press

Texas announces takeover of Houston schools, stirring anger

Juan A. Lozano and Paul J. Weber – March 15, 2023

FILE - People hold up signs at a news conference, Friday, March 3, 2023, in Houston while protesting the proposed takeover of the city's school district by the Texas Education Agency. Texas officials on Wednesday, March 15, announced a state takeover of Houston's nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political. (AP Photo/Juan A. Lozano) — People hold up signs at a news conference, Friday, March 3, 2023, in Houston while protesting the proposed takeover of the city’s school district by the Texas Education Agency. Texas officials on Wednesday, March 15, announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political. (AP Photo/Juan A. Lozano)

FILE - Houston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II answers questions from the media, May 21, 2021, in Houston. Texas officials on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, announced a state takeover of Houston's nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political. (Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP, File) — Houston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II answers questions from the media, May 21, 2021, in Houston. Texas officials on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political. (Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas officials on Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political.

The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the U.S. It also deepens a high-stakes rift between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats wield control, and state Republican leaders, who have sought increased authority following election fumbles and COVID-19 restrictions.

The takeover is the latest example of Republican and predominately white state officials pushing to take control of actions in heavily minority and Democratic-led cities. They include St. Louis and Jackson, Mississippi, where the Legislature is pushing to take over the water system and for an expanded role for state police and appointed judges.

In a letter to the Houston Independent School District, Morath said the Texas Education Agency will replace Superintendent Millard House II and the district’s elected board of trustees with a new superintendent and an appointed board of managers made of residents from within the district’s boundaries.

Morath said the board has failed to improve student outcomes while conducting “chaotic board meetings marred by infighting” and violating open meetings act and procurement laws. He accused the district of failing to provide proper special education services and of violating state and federal laws with its approach to supporting students with disabilities.

He cited the seven-year record of poor academic performance at one of the district’s roughly 50 high schools, Wheatley High, as well as the poor performance of several other campuses.

“The governing body of a school system bears ultimate responsibility for the outcomes of all students. While the current Board of Trustees has made progress, systemic problems in Houston ISD continue to impact district students,” Morath wrote in his six-page letter.

Most of Houston’s school board members have been replaced since the state began making moves toward a takeover in 2019. House became superintendent in 2021.

He and the current school board will remain until the new board of managers is chosen sometime after June 1. The new board of managers will be appointed for at least two years.

House in a statement pointed to strides made across the district, saying the announcement “does not discount the gains we have made.”

He said his focus now will be on ensuring “a smooth transition without disruption to our core mission of providing an exceptional educational experience for all students.”

The Texas State Teachers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas condemned the takeover. At a news conference in Austin, state Democratic leaders called for the Legislature to increase funding for education and raise teacher pay.

“We acknowledge that there’s been underperformance in the past, mainly due to that severe underfunding in our public schools,” state Rep. Armando Walle, who represents parts of north Houston, said.

An annual Census Bureau survey of public school funding showed Texas spent $10,342 per pupil in the 2020 fiscal year, more than $3,000 less than the national average, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston.

The state was able to take over the district under a change in state law that Houston Democratic state Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. proposed in 2015. In an op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle on Monday, Dutton said he has no regrets about what he did.

“We’re hearing voices of opposition, people who say that HISD shouldn’t have to face consequences for allowing a campus to fail for more than five consecutive years. Those critics’ concern is misplaced,” Dutton wrote.

Schools in other big cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit, in recent decades have gone through state takeovers, which are generally viewed as last resorts for underperforming schools and are often met with community backlash. Critics argue that state interventions generally have not led to big improvements.

Texas started moving to take over the district following allegations of misconduct by school trustees, including inappropriate influencing of vendor contracts, and chronically low academic scores at Wheatley High.

The district sued to block a takeover, but new education laws subsequently passed by the GOP-controlled state Legislature and a January ruling from the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to seize control.

“All of us Texans have an obligation and should come together to reinvent HISD in a way that will ensure that we’re going to be providing the best quality education for those kids,” Abbott said Wednesday.

Schools in Houston are not under mayoral control, unlike in New York and Chicago, but as expectations of a takeover mounted, the city’s Democratic leaders unified in opposition.

Race is also an issue because the overwhelming majority of students in Houston schools are Hispanic or Black. Domingo Morel, a professor of political science and public services at New York University, said the political and racial dynamics in the Houston case are similar to instances where states have intervened elsewhere.

“If we just focus on taking over school districts because they underperform, we would have a lot more takeovers,” Morel said. “But that’s not what happens.”

Weber reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

Texas Lawmakers Have a New Scheme to Punish Renewables and Prop Up Fossil Fuels

Gizmodo

Texas Lawmakers Have a New Scheme to Punish Renewables and Prop Up Fossil Fuels

Molly Taft – March 14, 2023

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick waves to a crowd at a Trump rally.

Texas Republicans are at it again. Last week, Republican politicians in the state legislature introduced a package of bills intended to punish renewable energy and boost fossil fuels, despite the fact that Texas is currently one of the nation’s top generators of renewable power.

On Thursday, Texas state senators Charles Schwertner and Phil King introduced nine bills that they said would help solve issues with Texas’s beleaguered power grid. According to the Dallas Morning News, the bills include one that would create up to 10,000 megawatts of natural gas-fueled generation; one to smooth out what Schwertner said were pro-wind and solar “market distortions” that federal tax breaks create; one to get rid of any remaining state tax credits for renewables; and one that would limit new renewable energy facilities being built based on how much natural gas facilities are also being built, in an attempt to keep natural gas competitive.

The bills are an echo of some of the concepts raised in bills introduced two years ago, the last time the legislature was in session, introduced shortly after a 2021 winter freeze and subsequent blackouts killed hundreds of people—and while the GOP was still erroneously trying to blame the issues with the grid exclusively on renewable energy (a lot of the blame actually lay with natural gas supply). While the renewables bill didn’t end up passing, Texas Republicans have kept beating the drum to try to use grid reforms to sink renewables and prop up fossil fuels.

As the Dallas Morning News reported, Texas leadership are all for these types of measures. Earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott said he would not allow wind and solar companies to get corporate tax breaks under a new state program. Meanwhile, last week Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the bills at the press conference, saying in a release that they will “fix the Texas power grid once and for all.” Patrick said that he has designated two of the bills—the one to create the new natural gas generation and one dealing with the “market distortions”—as part of his hand-picked suite of 30 priority bills that he would be pushing during this legislative session.

What’s truly wild about this set of possible laws is just how well renewable energy is doing in Texas. Last year, the state was the number one producer of wind energy in the country and the number two producer of solar. The International Energy Agency predicted last year that renewables’ work on the grid could grow even more in 2023, pushing natural gas use down.

“These bills will subsidize those dirty energy sources at a big cost to consumers and the environment,” Luke Metzger, executive director at Environment Texas, told Earther in an email. “Folks at the Texas Legislature used to speak of the importance of not picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace. Well, that’s exactly what these bills do. The state of Texas is dispensing with the free market to subsidize polluting power plants and discriminating against wind and solar energy.”

The Texas power grid’s issues are a hell of a lot more complex than ‘renewables bad, fossil fuels good.’ It’s going to take more uncomfortable reforms to iron out what actually is going to work for the state, but we can count on Republicans to take any opportunity to use renewable energy as a political punching bag.

Federal manhunt underway for man who was Larry Hogan’s chief of staff

CBS News

Federal manhunt underway for man who was Larry Hogan’s chief of staff

Kathryn Watson – March 14, 2023

FILE: Prosecutors have accused Roy McGrath of collecting excessive expenses while in office, for illegally engineering a $233,647 severance payment from the Maryland Environmental Service when he left the organization to be Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's chief of staff and for fabricating a memo from Hogan's office that showed the governor's approval of the payment. / Credit: Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images — FILE: Prosecutors have accused Roy McGrath of collecting excessive expenses while in office, for illegally engineering a $233,647 severance payment from the Maryland Environmental Service when he left the organization to be Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s chief of staff and for fabricating a memo from Hogan’s office that showed the governor’s approval of the payment. / Credit: Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

A federal manhunt is underway for Roy McGrath, once the chief of staff to ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, after he failed to appear in court Monday for the first day of his trial on wire fraud and embezzlement charges.

The U.S. Marshals Service launched an interstate fugitive search after a federal judge issued a warrant for McGrath’s arrest. McGrath’s face is plastered on a U.S. Marshals poster, which highlights charges against him for wire fraud, theft in programs receiving federal funds and falsification of records in federal investigations.

Roy C. McGrath Wanted poster. / Credit: U.S. Marshals

A law enforcement source tells CBS News that McGrath’s family was at his home in Florida when FBI visited the house Tuesday morning. The source said his high profile and the widely circulating photos will make it difficult for him to remain at large.

McGrath was scheduled to appear in federal court in Baltimore on charges related to his tenure running the Maryland Environmental Service before joining Hogan’s office as chief of staff in 2020. The 2021 indictment against McGrath says he sought to enrich himself personally by using his position as executive director of the agency and his role as chief of staff to the governor to engineer a payment from the agency he shouldn’t have received. Prosecutors also allege that McGrath falsified his time sheets while he took a vacation to Europe and that he stole money for classes at Harvard. McGrath resigned from Hogan’s office weeks after assuming the chief-of-staff job after an investigation found he wasn’t forthcoming about the $230,000 severance package he had received for leaving the quasi-government agency, according to court filings.

McGrath, 53, has been living in Naples, Florida, and was supposed to travel to Maryland for the trial, according to court records. It’s possible Hogan could testify in the trial. He was Maryland’s governor from 2015 until earlier this year; he has denied knowing about or approving McGrath’s severance payment.

McGrath has pleaded not guilty on all charges. His attorney, Joseph Murtha, said he doesn’t know where his client is.

“Unfortunately, I have no idea of Roys’s whereabouts,” Murtha said. “I hope that he is safe, and that we will soon have an opportunity to speak with one another.”

Murtha told CBS Baltimore’s WJZ on Tuesday he has yet to hear from his client. He confirmed McGrath’s wife spoke to law enforcement at the couple’s home in Naples, Florida. And he said she is cooperating with the investigation and has no idea of her husband’s whereabouts.

Rob Legare, Scott McFarlane and Matthew Mosk contributed to this report.

We have a huge salt problem. Millions will die without action, WHO warns.

The Washington Post

We have a huge salt problem. Millions will die without action, WHO warns.

Leo Sands – March 14, 2023

Salt grains on black slate board, dark background (Stefano Madrigali via Getty Images)

Seven million people could die of diseases linked to excessive salt consumption before the decade’s end unless governments immediately pass tighter restrictions on salt, a report by the World Health Organization warned this month. Its authors are calling on governments to implement stricter sodium targets for food, mark salt content more clearly on packaging and boost public awareness of the health dangers posed by eating a lot of salty food.

“Excessive sodium intake is the top risk factor for an unhealthy diet, and it is responsible for 1.8 million deaths each year,” said Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development.

Eating too much salt is one of the causes of cardiovascular disease, which kills an estimated 17.9 million people each year, according to the WHO. It can also lead to strokes, which kill 5 million people each year globally – and other serious medical conditions.

Governments could save many of those lives by introducing mandatory limits on the amount of salt the food industry is permitted to add to processed foods, Branca said – adding that this accounts for the majority of sodium consumed by most Americans, rather than salt sprinkled on food in the kitchen.

“This is really something that doesn’t cost money to anybody,” Branca said. “It’s a simple intervention, but it’s incredibly effective.”

Most people in the world consume about 10.8 grams of salt a day, more than double the level recommended by both the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggests consuming no more than a teaspoon of salt a day. While salt is an essential nutrient, sodium – which constitutes 40 percent of it – narrows and stiffens blood vessels.

“If you retain more salt in the body, it slowly puts up the blood pressure,” said Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the report but campaigns for reducing salt intake. “That raised blood pressure then causes strokes, heart attacks or heart failure.”

Many other health organizations – including the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine – also recommend that consumers dramatically reduce their sodium intake. That position is based on decades of scientific evidence (including analyses of hundreds of published studies that underscore sodium’s health dangers) that remains unchanged despite several studies in recent years that have challenged it.

The WHO is hoping to reduce global salt intake by 30 percent from 2013 levels, a 12-year target agreed to by all 194 of its member states at the time – but which none is on track to meet, it said. Branca said he was considering extending the target to 2030.

In a review of salt reduction policies that have been implemented by world governments, the WHO found that just nine of its members had put sufficiently comprehensive measures in place to reduce excessive salt consumption – 5 percent of its members.

The U.N.’s health agency is calling on governments to improve public awareness around the dangers of an overly salty diet and advertise salt levels more clearly on packaging. WHO officials believe that mandatory salt content levels are also required to wean the world off its deadly salt habit – given the high proportion that is used by food manufacturers rather than added by individual consumers.

“There’s no point in telling people to stop adding salt in their food,” MacGregor said. “It’s already in there.”

More than 70 percent of salt in the American diet comes from packaged and prepared foods, according to the Food and Drug Administration, not from the salt shaker at home.

In September, the FDA announced that it planned to change the rules for nutrition labels on food packages to indicate that they are “healthy.” Manufacturers would be required to adhere to specific limits for, among other nutrients, sodium.

In response, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents 1,700 major brands, including General Mills and Pepsi, said the proposed rule was overly restrictive and instead suggested “revising nutrient thresholds to modestly higher levels for added sugars and sodium.”

Part of the reason food manufacturers continue to add so much salt despite the known health risks, the WHO’s Branca argues, is that years of adding too much salt to our foods has left people’s taste buds desensitized to excessive levels. “You expect a certain amount of salt, and you think that if you don’t have that much salt, the food is tasteless,” Branca said.

“Manufacturers don’t want to take the initiative to reduce sodium if there’s a competitor that has a higher content of salt,” he said, demanding that governments force food manufacturers to reduce those levels through mandatory targets.

The benefits of reducing salt intake begin relatively rapidly, scientists say. Blood pressure starts falling within weeks for most people, according to the CDC, and sensitivity to salt returns soon.

“Your taste buds will adjust to a reduction in salt, and you’ll be able to better taste the other flavors,” Branca said. Your food, he suggests, may even start tasting better.

The Washington Post’s Marlene Cimons and Laura Reiley contributed to this report.

Ukraine accuses Russian snipers of abusing child, gang raping mother

Reuters

Exclusive-Ukraine accuses Russian snipers of abusing child, gang raping mother

Stefaniia Bern and Anthony Deutsch – March 14, 2023

Scan of a document with a lineup of 12 Russian soldiers suspected in a spree of sexual violence in the Brovary district on the outskirts of Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine has accused two Russian soldiers of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and gang raping her mother at gunpoint in front of her father, as part of widespread allegations of abuse during the more than one-year-long invasion.

According to Ukrainian prosecution files seen by Reuters, the incidents were among a spree of sex crimes Russian soldiers of the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade committed in four homes of Brovary district near the capital Kyiv in March 2022.

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Phone numbers listed for the brigade were out of order. Two officials at the Samara Garrison, of which the brigade is a part, said they were unable to give contacts for the unit when contacted by Reuters, with one saying they were classified.

During Moscow’s failed push to capture Kyiv after its Feb. 24 invasion, soldiers entered Brovary a few days later, looting and using sexual violence as a deliberate tactic to terrorise the population, the Ukrainian prosecutors said.

“They singled out the women beforehand, coordinated their actions and their roles,” said the prosecutors, whose 2022 documents were based on interviews with witnesses and survivors.

Most of the alleged atrocities took place on March 13, when soldiers “in a state of alcoholic intoxication, broke into the yard of the house where a young family lived,” the prosecutors alleged.

The father was beaten with a metal pot then forced to kneel while his wife was gang raped. One of the soldiers told the four-year-old girl he “will make her a woman” before she was abused, the documents said.

The family survived, though prosecutors said they are investigating additional crimes in the area including murders during the same period.

President Vladimir Putin’s government, which says it is fighting Western-backed “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine, has repeatedly denied allegations of atrocities. It has also denied that its military commanders are aware of sexual violence by soldiers.

The soldiers were both snipers, aged 32 and 28, the files said, adding that the former had died while the younger, named as Yevgeniy Chernoknizhniy, returned to Russia.

When Reuters asked for the identities of both soldiers, prosecutors provided only the name of the younger man. When Reuters called a number in online databases for him, a person saying he was Chernoknizhniy’s brother said he was deceased.

“He died. There’s no way you can get hold of him,” said the man, crying. “That’s all that I can say.”

Reuters was unable to independently confirm his assertion.

GROWING ACCUSATIONS

The two snipers were among six suspects accused in the Brovary assaults, which prosecutors say is one of the most extensive investigations of sexual abuse since the invasion.

After the alleged attack on the girl and her parents, the two soldiers entered the house of an elderly couple next door, where they beat them, prosecutors said, also raping a 41-year-old pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl.

At another location where several families lived, the soldiers forced everyone into the kitchen and gang raped a 15-year-old girl and her mother, they said.

All the victims survived, prosecutors said, and were receiving psychological and medical assistance.

A pre-trial investigation is ongoing into the possible role of superior officials in the Brovary attacks, prosecutors said, in a case adding to growing allegations of systematic sexual abuse by Russian soldiers.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office says it is investigating more than 71,000 reports of war crimes received since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops over the border.

Ukrainian investigators know the probability of finding and punishing suspects is low and potential trials would be mainly in absentia, but there are also international efforts to prosecute war crimes including by the International Criminal Court.

While suspects are unlikely to be surrendered by Moscow, anyone convicted in absentia may be placed on international watchlists, which would make it difficult to travel.

Russia has also accused Ukrainian forces of war crimes, including the execution of 10 prisoners of war.

A U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has said that most of the dozens of sexual violence accusations pointed at the Russian military.

So far, Ukrainian prosecutors have convicted 26 Russians of war crimes – some prisoners of war, some in absentia – of which one was for rape.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam and Stefaniia Bern in Kyiv; Additional reporting by Anton Zverev and Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)

Zelenskiy: more than 1,000 Russian dead in Bakhmut

Reuters

Zelenskiy: more than 1,000 Russian dead in Bakhmut

March 13, 2023

Relentless fighting surged in and around the ravaged eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut on Monday, in a months-long struggle that has become Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two.

To the north, Ukrainian paramedics raced to stabilize and evacuate soldiers wounded on the front line.

Russian forces led by the Wagner mercenary army have captured the city’s east but so far failed to encircle it.

A Ukrainian commander on the ground said Monday that all enemy attempts to capture the town have been repelled, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late Sunday that Russian forces had taken heavy losses.

“In less than a week – starting from March 6 – we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, which is Russia’s irreversible loss, the loss right there, near Bakhmut.”

Reports of intense combat, also coming from the Russian side

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – who is leading Russia’s assault on Bakhmut — on Sunday described the situation as ‘very tough’.

“The enemy is fighting for every meter and the closer we are to the center of the city, the harder the fighting, the more the artillery is shelling at us, the more tanks appear. The Ukrainians throw in endless reserves. But we are advancing and we will be advancing.”

Footage aired by Russian tv over the weekend showed devastation purported to be southern Bakhmut, with buildings in ruins and bodies strewn on the ground.

A Russian soldier said they went house to house, ‘assaulting’ the groups inside.

Ukraine has vowed not to withdraw, aiming to inflict heavy losses on Russia ahead of a planned counterattack later this year.

Moscow says taking the city would be a major success, opening a path to capture the rest of the surrounding Donetsk region.

As the fighting ground on, Moscow appeared on the cusp of a diplomatic breakthrough: several sources told Reuters that China’s President Xi Jinping could visit Russia as soon as next week.

Putin has touted such a visit as a show of support..

China has declined to ascribe blame for the war while opposing Western sanctions against Russia, and has said it intends to try to broker peace in Ukraine.

But the deepening ties between Russia and China are stirring concerns in the West.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that Russia and China threatened to create a world … ‘defined by danger, disorder and division.”

In an update to its foreign policy framework published Monday, Britain cast China as representing an “epoch-defining challenge” to the world order, declaring that the UK’s security hinged on the outcome of the Ukraine war.

Frontline City Braces for ‘Decisive’ Attack on Putin’s Army

Daily Beast

Frontline City Braces for ‘Decisive’ Attack on Putin’s Army

Sam Skove – March 14, 2023

HULIAIPOLE, Ukraine—The lightning crack of shellfire has long replaced the hum of traffic on the streets of Huliaipole, a historic farming city on Ukraine’s front line.

On a February morning blanketed by the first snow of the year, though, the only sound on the nearly deserted streets was the whine of tires on fresh snow.

“No one knows why,” the Russians stopped firing two days ago, said the city’s mayor, 42-year-old Serhey Yermak, standing near the massive crater left by a Russian missile strike that killed his deputy in October. “Maybe the Russians are rotating their forces.”

<div class="inline-image__credit">Sam Skove</div> — Sam Skove

The town’s near-yearlong ordeal of Russian shelling shows what’s at stake for Ukraine’s much-heralded spring counteroffensive, which media report will likely happen nearby.

Western tanks—the first batch of which were delivered to Ukraine roughly two weeks ago—will likely be key to the assault. While they’ve yet to be seen in combat, Ukrainian troops are busy training on them in preparation. If Ukraine successfully breaks Russian lines, the town can finally recover from one of the longest periods of sustained shelling in Ukraine. If it fails, the town, already tattered, will face yet further disintegration under Russian fire.

While Ukraine has been tight-lipped about where its next thrust might be, experts have said that southern Ukraine is a prime target. “The south is the place where an offensive could be most decisive,” John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council, told The Daily Beast. A counteroffensive there would break Russia’s land route to the occupied Crimean peninsula, possibly setting the stage for Russian forces there to “wither on the vine,” Herbst added.

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that the counteroffensive will happen this spring, without stating exactly where such an offensive might occur.

Major Blitz on Putin’s ‘Mightily Struggling’ Army Just ‘Weeks Away’

Not so long ago, Mayor Yermak sported a blue suit and white shirt to work. He first entered the town’s administration in 2006 and in 2017 was elected mayor, presiding over the mundane work of building parks, remodeling schools and trash removal.

Huliaipole, founded in 1777, is a small town clustered around historic brick buildings in the center, including a 113-year-old synagogue. It’s famous throughout Ukraine as the base of Nestor Makhnko, a military leader who used the chaos following the end of World War I to establish one of the only anarchist states to ever exist.

Huliaipole’s ordeal began almost immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last year. Two days later, Ukrainian media reported a loss of electricity in the town due to shelling, and on March 5, Russian troops briefly entered Huliaipole. The front line eventually settled just outside the town, with the closest Russian positions less than two miles away.

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>Avhustyna Psevdaklyayeva (left) and a neighbor.</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">Sam Skove</div> — Avhustyna Psevdaklyayeva (left) and a neighbor.Sam Skove

“Be afraid of hell and the guy from Makhno-city.”

Yermak’s first task when the war began was evacuating the city. Around 12,000 residents eventually left the town, some on school buses provided by the city. Around 3,000 mostly elderly residents remain. Despite Yermak’s dismay, at least 93 children are also still in the city.

He then had to learn how to run a city in wartime. “Not a single thing prepared me” for the war, he said, reflecting on his 16 years in the city administration. Still, municipal tasks continue on. The hospital functions, although its patients are treated in the basement. The police still patrol, with their chief task being the prevention of looting and stopping soldiers from buying alcohol. The city still arranges trash, but its garbage collectors now dress in body armor and helmets.

Yermak himself ditched his suit for camouflage and body armor. A patch on the camouflage fatigues that Yermak now favors is a tribute to Makhno: “Be afraid of hell and the guy from Makhno-city.”

The town’s residents have been living without electricity, water, and heat since March. In one of the town’s Soviet-built seven-story buildings, Avhustyna Psevdaklyayeva, 67, and Lyudmyla Zhovnyrenko, 52, live with five others in a cramped, chilly apartment. It’s “very, very cold” Psevdaklyayeva said. Psevdaklyayeva is staying there due to the expense of moving on her small pension.

There is not much to do but cook food and tend to the cats and dog that also live there. At night, the residents sit at their one table and reminisce, said Psevdaklyayeva. “Each one talks about their memories and so the time passes a little faster,” she told The Daily Beast.

Thrown together in the war, the group are now friends. On one wall hangs a Ukrainian flag with their names signed on it, in commemoration of their still-ongoing ordeal. Not all relationships survived the war. “The war showed who was who,” said Zhovnyrenko. The two women said they keep an eye out for looters who visit the area, questioning any unknown faces.

Until Jan. 13, Psevdaklyayeva’s husband lived there too. He had a heart attack and lost consciousness, but when they called the hospital, they were advised to come on foot. They called the mayor who cajoled the hospital into sending an ambulance. It came too late, and her husband died.

On a drive around the town after leaving Psevdaklyayeva and Zhovnyrenko, it’s clear that the city is gradually fraying apart. The former city cultural center, a once-massive concrete building, is entirely smashed. In the downtown, flurries of snow drifted in through shell holes in stately old brick buildings.

As terrible as the situation is, it could get even worse if Russia ever launches a sustained assault. If that occurs, the town would more likely resemble other ruined communities across Ukraine that endured street fighting, like Soledar, Izyum, or Bucha.

Such an assault is unlikely in the near term, the American think tank the Institute for the Study of War reported in December. City officials, though, spoke of an intensification of shelling in December and January.

“We’re all for our counteroffensive coming soon,” Yermak said. “To tell you from a patriotic viewpoint, of course we’re not afraid. But of course everyone is worried.”

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>Mayor Serhey Yermak (left)</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">Sam Skove</div> — Mayor Serhey Yermak (left)Sam Skove

Several miles on the road away from Huliaipole, 37-year-old Alina Kovaleva and her 5-year-old son Gordei were celebrating the first day of the snow the way many families might: they made a snowman.

About 3 feet tall and with a carrot for a nose, the snowman stood on as Gordei, giggling furiously, hurled larger and larger snowballs at Alina, both of them wearing heavy winter coats.

Kovaleva said her village has Russian shells fall in it occasionally. When there’s shelling at night, she and her husband take their three children down into the cellar.

She wasn’t considering relocating, however. “All of Ukraine’s dangerous,” she told The Daily Beast with a shrug, returning to the snowball fight with her son.