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I’m a cardiologist. Here are 8 foods I’ll never eat

Today

I’m a cardiologist. Here are 8 foods I’ll never eat

A. Pawlowski – March 20, 2023

Cardiologists see firsthand what a bad diet can do to your heart.

More than 600,000 people die of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. every year — the leading cause of death for both men and women, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even heart doctors themselves can suffer a heart attack.

Wouldn’t you like to lower your risk?

Hippocrates famously said, “Let food be thy medicine,” and that applies to heart health: Diet is incredibly important, noted Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado, and a member of the American College of Cardiology’s Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Section Leadership Council.

“If you go to parts of the world where they have not been exposed to a Western lifestyle, meaning a sedentary lifestyle and eating processed foods, heart disease is in very limited existence,” Freeman told TODAY.

Still, it may not always be possible to eliminate problem foods, so moderation and portion control are key.

“There isn’t a food that will save your life … And there isn’t one that’s going to kill you. It is about balance,” said Dr. Sharonne Hayes, professor of cardiovascular medicine and founder of the Women’s Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“So the occasional Cheeto or piece of cheesecake isn’t going to kill you, but it really is what you eat and how much you eat that’s so critical.”

TODAY asked Freeman and Hayes to share some of the top foods they try to avoid or limit for optimal health. Here are eight of the items on their lists:

1. Bacon, sausage and other processed meats

Hayes, who has a family history of coronary disease, is a vegetarian. But even before she stopped eating animal protein some 25 years ago, she avoided processed meats because they’re high in calories, saturated fat, salt and have added ingredients like nitrates.

It’s not only heart health that may be affected by overindulging in hot dogs, salami, bacon, ham and jerky: The World Health Organization has determined eating processed meats causes cancer, Freeman pointed out.

2. Potato chips and other processed, packaged snacks

Stay away from the little pouches of salty, crunchy carbs you might encounter in a vending machine, the doctors advised.

“Our culture values convenience, which is great, but convenience doesn’t mean you have to eat packaged processed foods with added sugars and salt,” Freeman said. “Nature has provided for us the exact foods we should be eating; we just need to eat them.”

Those easy, portable, natural foods include apples, carrots and other fruits and vegetables — all fiber-rich, nutrient-full options.

Hayes agrees with many nutritionists that simple carbs — found in chips, breads and crackers — are a bigger issue than fat. Look for ways to increase the complexity of what you eat, in terms of grains and other nutrients, she advised.

3. Dessert

Enjoy added sugars in very limited quantities, if at all, Freeman noted.

When it comes to desserts like pies, ice cream and candy bars, Hayes indulges once a week at most and keeps her portion small to limit calories. Her main goal is to maintain a healthy weight: She’s weighed about the same for the past 30 years.

4. Too much protein

“We seem to be obsessed with protein in this country,” Freeman said. “It’s not uncommon to see people getting two times as much protein as they may need in a day and that taxes the kidneys and may cause more problems down the road.”

Another issue is that the extra protein often comes from meats high in saturated fats, which may raise LDL or bad cholesterol, and comes at the expense of other food groups, the American Heart Association warns.

So don’t overdo it and opt for plant protein, both doctors advised.

5. Fast food

It’s been years since Hayes has had any fast food. Some chains let you concoct a reasonably healthy item with fresh vegetables, but most burger and chicken fast food restaurants should be avoided “because there’s virtually nothing on the menu that’s healthy for you,” she said. Even the items that aren’t fried are typically high in simple carbs.

6. Energy drinks

Freeman said he avoids them because they contain added sugar, plus ingredients that may potentially induce problems like high blood pressure or arrhythmia.

That doesn’t mean you should skip caffeine. It’s quite healthful to drink tea or coffee in moderation every day, he said. Just watch what you put in your cup: Black coffee can turn into a calorie bomb if you add sugar, whipped cream, caramel and other toppings.

7. Added salt

There’s virtually no American who doesn’t get too much salt in their diet, Hayes noted. It’s not uncommon for a person to get three or four times the recommended daily amount, Freeman added. Added salt lurks in products you may not realize: cereal, a pickle that comes with your sandwich or a chicken breast that’s been brined to stay juicy and moist.

Read the labels and be aware of how much sodium you’re taking in. You need salt to live, but a high-sodium diet raises blood pressure.

8. Coconut Oil

It has more saturated fat than lard, Freeman said.

“It’s used in some studies to induce atherosclerosis — sludge in the pipes, if you will, in rats and other animals,” he noted. “It works great topically — it’s a wonderful moisturizer for hair and skin — but I wouldn’t eat too much of it.”

Russia’s spring Ukraine offensive may be winding down amid heavy troop losses, munitions shortages

The Week

Russia’s spring Ukraine offensive may be winding down amid heavy troop losses, munitions shortages

Peter Weber, Senior editor – March 20, 2023

Ukrainian tank fires near Bakhmut Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

U.S. officials are quietly warning Ukraine to conserve its dwindling supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition, air defenses, and experienced soldiers for a major spring counteroffensive to regain territory from Russian invaders, expected to start in May, once Western armor and weapons are in place. Ukraine is especially running through artillery shells and suffering heavy losses holding on to Bakhmut, a razed town U.S. officials see of limited strategic value.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainians say Russia is using more ammunition and suffering much heavier losses in Bakhmut and elsewhere along the front lines for only incremental, halting gains. “And Ukrainian commanders on the front lines say that they sense that Russian units are hollowed out and could collapse in the face of a strong Ukrainian counteroffensive” in the spring, The New York Times reports. After Russian forces came dangerously close to encircling Bakhmut in February, Ukraine pushed back and has kept open its western supply routes.

Statements from Ukrainian military officials and warnings from Russian pro-war military bloggers “suggest that the overall Russian spring offensive may be nearing culmination,” with few “operationally significant gains” to show for it, the Institute for the Study of War think tank assessed Sunday. If 300,000 conscripts “have been unable to give Russia a decisive offensive edge in Ukraine, it is highly unlikely that the commitment of additional forces in future mobilization waves will produce a dramatically different outcome this year. Ukraine is therefore well positioned to regain the initiative and launch counteroffensives in critical sectors of the current front line.”

What Russian war bloggers call Moscow’s mass-casualty “meat assaults” on Bakhmut, Vuhledar, and other contested cities have also prompted a new flurry of videos from Russian troops begging Russian President Vladimir Putin to change tactics, The Washington Post reports. “People die for nothing,” a balaclava-covered recruit from the 5th Motorized Brigade said in one video. “We are not meat. We are ready to fight with dignity, not as meat, in frontal attacks.”

The close combat in Bakhmut is “hell” for Ukrainian forces, but it’s worse for Russia, Ukrainian war veteran Yevhen Dykyi recently told Ukraine’s First Western TV channel. “This amount of Russian losses hasn’t caused an explosion in Russian society yet, but it resonates a lot inside the Russian Army,” he said. “And the longer these crazy losses — unjustified in the opinion of lower- and middle-rank soldiers — go on, the lower the morale of the Russian Army will be at the time of our counteroffensive.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger shared 2 weight-loss hacks, including the soup he has for dinner every night

Insider

Arnold Schwarzenegger shared 2 weight-loss hacks, including the soup he has for dinner every night

Gabby Landsverk – March 20, 2023

Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1985.Harry Langdon/Getty Images

Arnold Schwarzenegger said he never counted calories in his career as an actor and bodybuilder.
Instead, he said his weight-loss strategy was swapping out meals for protein or veggie soup.
His soup recipe is high in fiber and nutrients, which can help prevent hunger during weight loss.

Arnold Schwarzenegger said he never counted calories, but that two simple weight-loss strategies helped him stay trim during his career.

The actor and bodybuilding legend shared his go-to diet in his newsletter, responding to a fan question about the best way to break a weight loss plateau if diet and exercise stop working.

“One thing that’s worked for me when I am trying to get more ripped for a project has been just dropping a meal,” he wrote.

Schwarzenegger said his diet strategy has been swapping out one normal meal per day, either by having his morning meal late or subbing out dinner for a big serving of vegetable soup.

Schwarzenegger said a high-protein brunch helped him get ripped

Weight loss requires a calorie deficit, or eating fewer calories than you burn off over time. To do this, it can help to start eating later in the day, according to Schwarzenegger.

“Sometimes, I get going with my day after my training and have eggs or yogurt with granola later than normal, almost as a brunch instead of breakfast,” he said.

Some evidence suggests skipping breakfast entirely could stall weight loss by causing you to make unhealthy choices later. However, it can help you cut down on how many calories you consume by giving you fewer hours in the day to eat.

Eating plenty of protein with breakfast can also help stabilize blood sugar and make you less prone to having energy dips and cravings later in the day, dietitians previously told Insider.

Schwarznegger’s go-to dinner is a nutritious and low-calorie veggie soup

The former seven-time Mr. Olympia has previously said he follows a mostly vegan diet, and his last meal of the day is always a big bowl of vegetable soup.

Schwarzenegger shared the basic recipe in his newsletter for the “very delicious but light” dinner. It includes olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, salt and pepper, chickpeas, broth, plain low-fat yogurt, and fresh herbs. The recipe also calls for garlic, onion, zucchini, and spinach, although he has previously said you can use your favorite veggies or whatever you have on hand. Schwarzenegger has said he’ll add a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil as well.

Vegetables are high in nutrients as well as fiber, a specific type of carbohydrate that supports healthy digestion and helps you feel more full after eating, according to research.

Filling half your plate or more with veggies can support weight loss because they have a low caloric density, which means you can eat a lot of them while still keeping your overall caloric intake low.

Idaho hospital will stop delivering babies as doctors flee state due to abortion ban

The Guardian

Idaho hospital will stop delivering babies as doctors flee state due to abortion ban

Gloria Oladipo – March 20, 2023

<span>Photograph: Emily Elconin/Reuters</span> — Photograph: Emily Elconin/Reuters

An Idaho hospital has planned to stop delivering babies, with the medical center’s managers citing increasing criminalization of physicians and the inability to retain pediatricians as major reasons.

Bonner General Health, the only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, announced on Friday that it would no longer provide labor, delivery and a host of other obstetrical services.

The more than 9,000 residents of Sandpoint are now forced to drive 46 miles for the nearest labor and delivery care, the Idaho Statesman reported.

In a statement, the hospital’s leadership said that the decision to eliminate the obstetrics unit stemmed from the “political climate” in Idaho.

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult,” hospital officials said in a press release.

“We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,” the hospital’s board president, Ford Elsaesser, added in the statement.

“We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.”

The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered in 2022 and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted.

The hospital also lacks enough pediatricians to manage its neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, finding no permanent solution after reaching out to active and retired physicians to fill vacancies.

Hospital officials are hoping to keep obstetrics services available until 19 May but noted that it largely depends on staffing.

New patients are no longer being seen at the hospital, effective immediately, while current clients are being offered alternative referrals.

Since the supreme court in June eliminated the nationwide abortion rights that Roe v wade established, states with total abortion bans have passed laws that threaten possible prison time for doctors who perform abortions in violation of state law.

The supreme court decision legalized an Idaho state ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The state is the first to pass a copy of Texas’s controversial bill. It is also one of six that prosecutes doctors for providing the procedure, CBS News reported.

In August, the justice department filed a lawsuit against Idaho for its near-total ban on abortions, with doctors in the state writing in a court brief that physicians were often forced to choose between violating the state ban or federal healthcare law, the Associated Press reported.

The implication of the ban is driving doctors out of the state, the Bonner hospital’s press release noted.

“The Idaho legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care,” the hospital’s statement added.

“Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

Dr Amelia Huntsberger, a Bonner General Health obstetrician-gynecologist, wrote in an email to the Statesman that she would be leaving the hospital and the state because of its restrictive abortion laws and because the Idaho legislature was terminating its maternal mortality review committee.

“What a sad, sad state of affairs for our community,” Huntsberger wrote, according to the Statesman.

300,000 new troops couldn’t get Russia’s big offensive to work, and sending more to the front probably won’t help, war experts say

Business Insider

300,000 new troops couldn’t get Russia’s big offensive to work, and sending more to the front probably won’t help, war experts say

Jake Epstein – March 20, 2023

Ukrainian servicemen fire a howitzer cannon aimed at Russian positions on the front line nearby Bakhmut in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine on March 17, 2023.Photo by Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Russia mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in Ukraine and fuel a spring offensive.
But these new soldiers have been unable to turn Russia’s advances into a major success, war experts say.
Ukraine now appears positioned for its own push, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops called up to fight in Ukraine have been unable to turn Moscow’s new offensive into a battlefield success, war experts said in a new analysis. And throwing more soldiers into the fight most likely won’t help.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization in September 2022 to fight off a personnel shortage, and 300,000 reservists drafted. These soldiers — many of whom were sent into battle poorly equipped and with limited training — have since been committed to Russia’s ongoing spring offensive, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a Sunday assessment.

But Moscow’s offensive is “likely approaching culmination” because advances along several fronts in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region have so far failed to yield more than “incremental tactical gains,” the assessment said. ISW noted hostilities around the war-torn city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has raged for months, and cited Ukrainian military officials in its analysis.

“If 300,000 Russian soldiers have been unable to give Russia a decisive offensive edge in Ukraine it is highly unlikely that the commitment of additional forces in future mobilization waves will produce a dramatically different outcome this year,” ISW wrote in its assessment.

“Ukraine is therefore well positioned to regain the initiative and launch counteroffensives in critical sectors of the current frontline,” it added.

This image provided by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and taken in February 2023 shows damaged Russian tanks in a field after an attack on Vuhledar, Ukraine. — This image provided by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and taken in February 2023 shows damaged Russian tanks in a field after an attack on Vuhledar, UkraineUkrainian Armed Forces via AP, File

Experts, NATO officials, and Western intelligence agencies concluded in February that Russia had started its much-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine. On February 20, just days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s defense ministry said Russia was pursuing advances along several fronts around Bakhmut, Kremina, and Vuhledar.

This push by Russia marked a pivotal moment for Ukraine’s military, which was tasked with blunting Moscow’s assault and stopping its numerically larger force from advancing long enough to allow for the delivery of advanced Western armor, such as tanks, artillery, and infantry fighting vehicles, and other weaponry.

The massive influx of Russian troops into Ukraine was aimed at overwhelming the Ukrainians with numbers, even if it meant accepting a high casualty rate, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last month.

“What Russia lacks in quality, they try to compensate in quantity, meaning that the leadership, the logistics, the equipment, the training, don’t have the same level as the Ukrainian forces, but they have more forces,” he said at the time.

Meanwhile, Russian forces sent to fight in Ukraine have taken a beating. Western intelligence and US officials estimate Russia has likely suffered up t0 200,000 casualties in Ukraine. Over 60,000 soldiers alone may have been killed, according to a brief from the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

It’s mid-March and the Great Lakes are virtually ice-free. That’s a problem.

Akron Beacon Journal

It’s mid-March and the Great Lakes are virtually ice-free. That’s a problem.

Caitlin Looby, Akron Beacon Journal – March 19, 2023

Trumpeter swans find some open water along the Lake Erie shore last month. The ice in Ottawa County has melted since then as temperatures have been unseasonably warm.

It’s the middle of March and the Great Lakes are virtually ice-free.

Ice has been far below average this year, with only 7% of the lakes covered as of last Monday — and no ice at all on Lake Erie. Lake Erie’s average ice coverage for this time of year is 40%, based on measurements over the past half-century. The lake typically freezes over the quickest and has the most ice cover because it’s the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.

But communities along Ohio’s north coast, including Cleveland, Sandusky and Port Clinton, have seen considerably less ice forming on Lake Erie in recent years.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Erie’s ice coverage peaked in early February at 40%, a nearly 20% decrease from the historical average.

No ice isn’t a good thing for the lakes’ ecosystem. It can even stir up dangerous waves and lake-effect snowstorms.

So, what happens when the lakes are ice-free? What does it mean for the lakes’ food web? Is climate change to blame?

Little ice cover can be disastrous

This winter has already proved how dangerous lake-effect snow can be.

At the end of November, more than 6 feet of snow fell on Buffalo, New York, which sits on the shores of Lake Erie. A few weeks later on Dec. 23, more than 4 feet of snow covered the city and surrounding areas once again. The storm resulted in 44 deaths in Erie and Niagara counties, which sit on Lakes Erie and Ontario, respectively.

December 2022 storm:Winter storm leads to more than 1,300 crashes, multiple fatalities on Ohio roads

Cleveland and Sandusky reside on the shores of Lake Erie as well. The 2022 storm that swept the region on Dec. 23 dropped relatively little snow, only about 2-4 inches, but created dangerous conditions nonetheless.

In some places in Northeast Ohio, temperatures dropped from nearly 40 degrees to zero and below. Wind chills fueled by hurricane-force winds dragged the temperature even lower to minus 30 or even 35 below zero. This storm was the first time in almost a decade that the Cleveland Weather Forecast Office issued a blizzard warning.

A 46-vehicle pileup on the Ohio Turnpike near Sandusky claimed four lives.

A 46-vehicle pileup killed four people injured many others on the Ohio Turnpike during a winter storm with whiteout conditions Dec. 23.

During stormy winter months, ice cover tempers waves. When there is low ice cover, waves can be much larger, leading to lakeshore flooding and erosion. That happened in January 2020 along Lake Michigan’s southwestern shoreline. Record high lake levels mixed with winds whipped up 15-foot waves that flooded shorelines, leading Gov. Tony Evers to declare a state of emergency for Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties.

And while less ice may seem like a good thing for the lakes’ shipping industry, those waves can create dangerous conditions.

The Great Lakes are losing ice with climate change

The Great Lakes have been losing ice for the past five decades, a trend that scientists say will likely continue.

Of the last 25 years, 64% had below-average ice, said Michael Notaro, the director of the Center on Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The steepest declines have been in the north, including Lake Superior, northern Lake Michigan and Huron, and in nearshore areas.

Record high temperatures:Another weather record broken in Greater Akron; third record high set this month

More: What’s the state of the Great Lakes? Successful cleanups tempered by new threats from climate change

But this also comes with a lot of ups and downs, largely because warming is causing the jet stream to “meander,” said Ayumi Fujisaki Manome, a scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan who models ice cover and hazardous weather across the lakes.

There is a lot of year-to-year variability with ice cover spiking in years like 2014, 2015 and 2019 where the lakes were almost completely iced over.

Ice fishermen stay close to shore off of Bay Shore Park in New Franken, Wisconsin, in January, which saw relatively little ice cover on the Great Lakes.

No ice makes waves in the lakes’ ecosystems

A downturn in ice coverage due to climate change will likely have cascading effects on the lakes’ ecosystems.

Lake whitefish, a mainstay in the lakes’ fishing industry and an important food source for other fish like walleye, are one of the many Great Lakes fish that will be affected, said Ed Rutherford, a fishery biologist who also works at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

Lake whitefish spawn in the fall in nearshore areas, leaving the eggs to incubate over the winter months. When ice isn’t there, strong winds and waves can stir up the sediment, reducing the number of fish that are hatched in the spring, Rutherford said.

Walleye and yellow perch also need extended winters, he said. If they don’t get enough time to overwinter in cold water, their eggs will be a lot smaller, making it harder for them to survive.

Even so, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife released a report stating that Lake Erie’s 2022 walleye and yellow perch populations in the central and western basins are above average. Yellow perch hatches in the central basin are below average, however.

Declining ice cover on the lakes is also delaying the southward migration of dabbling ducks, a group of ducks that include mallards, out of the Great Lakes in the fall and winter, Notaro said. And if the ducks spend more time in the region it will increase the foraging pressure on inland wetlands.

Warming lakes and a loss of ice cover over time also will be coupled with more extreme rainfall, likely inciting more harmful algae blooms, said Notaro. These blooms largely form from agricultural runoff, creating thick, green mats on the lake surface that can be toxic to humans and pets.

In this 2017 photo, a catfish appears on the shoreline in the algae-filled waters of Lake Erie in Toledo.

Lakes Erie and Michigan are plagued with these blooms every summer. And now, blooms cropping up in Lake Superior for the first time are raising alarm.

“Even deep, cold Lake Superior has been experiencing significant algae blooms since 2018, which is quite atypical,” Notaro said.

More: Blue-green algae blooms, once unheard of in Lake Superior, are a sign that ‘things are changing’ experts say

There is still a big question mark on the extent of the changes that will happen to the lakes’ ecosystem and food web as ice cover continues to decline. That’s because scientists can’t get out and sample the lakes in the harsh winter months.

“Unless we can keep climate change in check … it will have changes that we anticipate and others that we don’t know about yet,” Rutherford said.

Caitlin Looby is a Report for America corps member who writes about the environment and the Great Lakes. Beacon Journal reporter Derek Kreider contributed to this article.

Sen. Mark Kelly flew with Russian pilots in the Navy and with NASA, and he said the Russian fighter jet running into a US drone shows ‘how incompetent they are’

Business Insider

Sen. Mark Kelly flew with Russian pilots in the Navy and with NASA, and he said the Russian fighter jet running into a US drone shows ‘how incompetent they are’

Sarah Al-Arshani – March 19, 2023

mark kelly has a skeptical expression wearing a us navy bomber jacket — Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., waits to speak during a news conference at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix, on Nov. 7, 2022.AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

A US drone crashed after a Russian fighter jet clipped its propeller over the Black Sea last week.
A think tank suggested the move was “aggressive messaging” by Russia.
Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot, said it was an example of Russia’s incompetence.

Sen. Mark Kelly flew with Russian pilots as a US Navy combat pilot and as a NASA astronaut.

He said the incident last week where a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on and then clipped the propeller of a US military drone shows how “reckless” and “incompetent” they are.

“I’m not surprised by this. I mean, I flew with Russian pilots, fighter pilots who couldn’t fly formation. And I watched this video, and it’s pretty obvious what happened. He lost sight of it, and he crashed into it,” Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday.

—CNN (@CNN) March 19, 2023

On Tuesday, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepted a US military MQ-9 Reaper drone that was flying over international waters above the Black Sea. The jets dumped fuel on the drone, and one jet eventually clipped the drone’s propeller. The drone eventually crashed into the water.

Watch: How a Russian warplane hit an unarmed US drone 0:00 1:32

Insider previously reported that while one think tank analysis suggested this was aggressive messaging by Russia, US officials have said the incident was most likely due to Russians not knowing how to fly.

The incident further soured the tense relationship between Washington and the Kremlin since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.

Kelly compared the fighter jet incident to the “incompetence that we see on the battle field every day in Ukraine.”

“That’s why the losses that the Russians are suffering right now are really high. At this point I mean, the best choice for Vladimir Putin would be to say: ‘Hey, this isn’t working,’ and he’s got to stop this illegal invasion,” Kelly said.

A Ukrainian soldier wondered if the Russians advancing on Bakhmut are on drugs: ‘Otherwise, how can they go to certain death?’

Insider

A Ukrainian soldier wondered if the Russians advancing on Bakhmut are on drugs: ‘Otherwise, how can they go to certain death?’

Kenneth Niemeyer – March 19, 2023

Ukrainian servicemen are seen along the frontline south of Bakhmut in the town of Toretsk, Ukraine on March 17, 2023.Anadolu Agency/GettyImages

A Ukrainian soldier said troops from Russia’s Wagner Group in Bakhmut seem like they are on drugs.
No evidence has emerged to show that Russia or the Wagner Group provide their troops with drugs.
Ukrainian soldiers have previously claimed that Russian troops seemed like “zombies.”

A Ukrainian soldier fighting in Bakhmut told The New York Times that his unit has sometimes wondered if fighters belonging to Russia’s infamous Wagner Group are on drugs.

While there’s no evidence of that, it’s not the first time Ukrainians have wondered aloud that the behavior of some Russian soldiers could be medically induced.

The Wagner Group is a powerful Russian paramilitary unit that has emerged as a key ally in Russia’s advance inside Ukraine. The group once sparked controversy when it offered convicted Russian prisoners freedom in return for fighting. Fighters from the Wagner group are notorious for storming frontline positions and enduring severe casualties.

A retired US Marine estimated that the average life expectancy of a Wagner soldier on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine is just four hours. And a 48-year-old prison inmate who exchanged his freedom to serve in Russia’s Wagner Group told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that the group only trained him for three weeks and that he expected to die on his first mission.

It’s the kind of behavior that soldiers from Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade, which is now fighting the Wagner Group in the key eastern city of Bakhmut, believe could be the result of taking drugs. The unit’s media officer told The New York Times that 10 to 15 Wagner fighters were advancing on their position, to their almost certain deaths, every day during the first month of fighting.

“They are killed and they come again,” he told The Times. “Our guys are wondering if they are on drugs. Otherwise, how can they go to certain death, stepping over the rotting corpses of their colleagues? You can go mad a bit.”

Ukrainians earlier speculated that Russian soldiers were taking drugs in November as winter began to make the fighting ever more miserable, telling AFP that Russian soldiers seemed like “zombies.”

“You shoot them and more come constantly,” one soldier said, according to AFP.

Another Ukrainian soldier told CNN in February that advancing Russian forces looked like a “zombie movie” as they climbed over “the corpses of their friends.”

“It looks like it’s very, very likely that they are getting some drugs before attack,” the soldier told CNN.

While there’s no evidence that fighters from the Wagner Group are taking drugs, there is a long history of drug-taking in conflict.

During World War II, Nazi Germany administered amphetamines, which were touted as a “miracle product,” according to TIME. Nazi soldiers took the drugs to increase their alertness and vigilance, according to the outlet.

Also during World War II, Russia’s Ministry of Defense gave every Russian soldier on the frontline a 100-gram ration of vodka called the commissar’s ration, according to a report from Macalester College.

And in World War 1, according to the BBC, cocaine and heroin use was common among soldiers. Department stores even sold kits for taking the drugs, which were marketed as a nice present for those fighting on the frontline.

A Sandwich Shop, a Tent City and an American Crisis

The New York Times

A Sandwich Shop, a Tent City and an American Crisis

Eli Saslow – March 19, 2023

Joel Coplin unlocks a gate on the fence surrounding the building where he lives and operates an art gallery, four blocks from the location where Joe Faillace operates The Olde Station Subway Shop, in Phoenix, Ariz. on Feb. 11, 2023. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)

PHOENIX — He had been coming into work at the same sandwich shop every weekday morning for the past four decades, but now Joe Faillace, 69, pulled up to Old Station Subs with no idea what to expect. He parked on a street lined with three dozen tents, grabbed his Mace and unlocked the door to his restaurant. He picked up the phone and dialed his wife and business partner, Debbie Faillace, 60.

“All clear,” he said. “Everything looks good.”

“You’re sure? No issues?” she asked. “What’s going on with the neighbors?”

He looked out the window toward Madison Street, which had become the center of one of the largest homeless encampments in the country, with as many as 1,100 people sleeping outdoors. On this February morning, he could see a half-dozen men pressed around a roaring fire. A young woman was lying in the street. A man was weaving down the sidewalk in the direction of Joe’s restaurant with a saw, muttering to himself and then stopping to urinate.

“It’s the usual chaos and suffering,” he told Debbie. “But the restaurant’s still standing.”

That had seemed to them like an open question each morning for the past three years, as an epidemic of unsheltered homelessness began to overwhelm Phoenix and many other major American downtowns. Cities across the West had been transformed by a housing crisis, a mental health crisis and an opioid epidemic, all of which landed at the doorsteps of small businesses already reaching a breaking point because of the pandemic. In Phoenix, where the number of people living on the streets had more than tripled since 2016, businesses had begun hiring private security firms to guard their property and lawyers to file a lawsuit against the city for failing to manage “a great humanitarian crisis.”

The Faillaces had signed onto the lawsuit as plaintiffs along with about a dozen other nearby property owners. They also bought an extra mop to clean up the daily flow of human waste, replaced eight shattered windows with plexiglass, installed a wrought-iron fence around their property and continued opening their doors at exactly 8 each morning to greet the first customer of the day.

Debbie arrived to help with the lunch rush, and she greeted customers at the register while Joe prepared tomato sauce and weighed out turkey for chef’s salads. Their margins had always been tight, but they saved on labor costs by both going into work every day. They remodeled the kitchen to make room for a nursery when their children were born and then expanded into catering to help those children pay for college. They kept making sandwiches for a loyal group of regulars even as the city transformed around them — its population growing by about 25,000 each year, housing costs soaring at a record pace, until it seemed that there was nowhere left for people to go except onto sidewalks, into tents, into broken-down cars, and increasingly into the air-conditioned relief of Old Station Subs.

Their restaurant was located in an industrial neighborhood that had always attracted a small number of transients. Over the years, Joe and Debbie came to know many by name and listened to their stories of eviction, medical debt, mental illness and addiction, and together they agreed that it was their job to offer not only compassion but help.

They had given out water, opened their bathroom to the public and cashed unemployment and disability checks at no extra cost. They hired a sandwich maker who was homeless and had lost his teeth after years of addiction; a dishwasher who lived in the women’s shelter and first came to the restaurant for lunch with her parole officer; a cleaner who slept a few blocks away on a wooden pallet and washed up in the bathroom before her shift.

But the homeless population in Phoenix continued to grow. Soon there were hundreds of people sleeping within a few blocks of Old Station, most of them with mental illness or substance abuse issues. They slept on Joe and Debbie’s outdoor tables, defecated behind their back porch, smoked methamphetamine in their parking lot, washed clothes in their bathroom sink, pilfered bread from their delivery trucks, had sex on their patio, masturbated within view of their employees and lit fires that burned down trees and scared away customers. Finally, Joe and Debbie could think of nothing else to do but to start calling police.

Within a half-mile of their restaurant, police had been called to an average of eight incidents a day in 2022. There were at least 1,097 calls for emergency medical help, 573 fights or assaults, 236 incidents of trespassing, 185 fires, 140 thefts, 125 armed robberies, 13 sexual assaults and four homicides. The remains of a 20- to 24-week-old fetus were burned and left next to a dumpster in November. Two people were stabbed to death in their tents. Sixteen others were found dead from overdoses, suicides, hypothermia or excessive heat. The city had tried to begin more extensive cleaning of the encampment, but advocates for people without housing protested that it was inhumane and in December the American Civil Liberties Union successfully filed a federal lawsuit to keep people on the street from being “terrorized” and “displaced.”

Shina Sepulveda had been living in the encampment for a few weeks or maybe for a few months. It was hard to know for sure, she said, because she had been experiencing delusions. What she remembered was escaping from a cult in Mesa, Arizona, building the first internet search engine, losing billions of dollars to a government conspiracy, cutting wiretaps out of her brain, retaking her dynastic name of Espy Rockefeller and then moving onto a sidewalk across the street from Old Station Subs.

For as long as she had been homeless, she tried to nap during the relative safety of the day and stay up late at night to help look over her small corner of the encampment. She put on makeup and sat down at a plywood desk, where a handwritten nameplate introduced her as “Doctor, Poet, Psychologist, Partner at Law,” and where in reality she was now the 47-year-old caretaker of a half-dozen people — because, even if many of her stories were fantastical, she had earned a reputation for being generous and kind and for knowing a bit about everything.

“Hey, Espy, can you help me?” Brandon Mack said as he walked over from his nearby tent. He lifted his shirt to reveal two stab wounds from a few days earlier. He had fought with a neighbor over a coveted corner spot on the sidewalk, walked to the emergency room, gotten 18 stitches and then returned to recover on a molding mattress in a partly burned tent.

Espy took out a pair of scissors, scrubbed them with hand sanitizer and started to cut away a few of his stitches. She wiped away the pus and blood with napkins, tossing them into the street. Then she turned her attention to the next person in need of help. Cecilia wanted soap, so Espy handed her a bar she had scavenged from the nearby shelter. C.J. was drunk and needed help getting into the street to go to the bathroom. A man known as K.D. was moving his tent down the sidewalk because he’d gotten into an argument with a neighbor who insulted his pit bull. “Nobody talks down to Dots,” K.D. said. “I’m ready to go off. I’m armed and dangerous.”

“I was a police officer,” Espy told him. “If you really have to shoot, don’t aim to kill. Just fire a warning shot.”

Joe came into work the next morning and saw a bag of drugs in the road, human waste on the sidewalk, a pit bull wandering the street and blood-soaked napkins blowing toward his restaurant patio, where he and Debbie were scheduled to meet with a real estate agent about the future of Old Station. Debbie still insisted that she was ready to be done with the restaurant. Joe didn’t want to run it without her, but he also didn’t want to walk away with nothing. They had spent the past several months exploring a compromise, seeing if they could sell the business and retire together.

“Are we getting any bites?” Joe asked the agent, Mike Gaida.

“Oh, yeah. I get calls every week,” Mike said, and he explained that at least 25 potential buyers had looked over the financials and recognized a strong family business for the reasonable price of $165,000. Several bailed once Mike mentioned the encampment, but at least a dozen potential buyers secretly came to check out the property. “Most of the time, they don’t call back,” Mike said. “If I track them down, it’s like, ‘God bless those people for staying in business, because I couldn’t do it.’”

“It’s taken years off my life,” Debbie said.

“For her it’s, ‘Get me out. We’ve got to sell, sell, sell,’” Joe said. “But we refused an offer for $250,000 eight years ago, and it keeps dropping. I don’t want to give this place away.”

“I get it,” Mike said. “If you were a half-mile in another direction, you’d be sitting on a million bucks. Instead, it’s, How can you dispose of it?”

A few days later, Joe arrived for work to the sound of a gunshot coming from across the street and a bullet pinging off a nearby fence. He hurried inside and called police. “Yeah, it’s Joe again, over at Old Station,” he said, and a few minutes later two police officers were walking the perimeter of his restaurant, searching for the bullet. Soon Debbie would be waking up and getting ready for work.

“What the heck am I going to tell her to keep her from losing it?” Joe wondered, and he began to rehearse the possibilities in his head. It was only one bullet. Nobody had gotten hurt. Police had come right away. The shooter wasn’t targeting the restaurant. The gunshot was random. It could have happened anywhere.

Joe went outside to get some air. K.D. was ranting on the sidewalk, banging his hand against a fence, contorting his fingers into the shape of a gun and then firing it off at the sky.

“This could be the last straw for her,” Joe said, and then he saw Debbie driving toward the parking lot, steering around K.D. and hurrying through the gate.

“Wow. Tough morning?” she asked.

He took her inside the restaurant while he tried to come up with the right words. It was only one shot. The restaurant was still standing. They’d run Old Station together for 37 years, and maybe they could hang on for a while longer. But instead Joe told her the only thing that felt true.

“The whole thing’s a disaster,” he said. “I get it. It’s OK. I understand why you’re done.”

Want to improve your overall health? Look at these 5 areas of your life

Deseret News

Want to improve your overall health? Look at these 5 areas of your life

Hanna Seariac – March 18, 2023

Salad greens and vegetables in Cambridge, Mass. | Wikimedia Commons

When it comes to health advice, a lot of people have very different opinions. Sometimes you’ll hear people say to eat keto and lift weights, while other times people will say that you should do cardio and count calories. With the litany of different suggestions, it can be difficult to find a routine that works for you.

Many people want to improve their health and aren’t sure which areas matter the most — should sleep and diet be the main focus or should it be exercise? The real answer is focusing on developing a healthier lifestyle and improving different aspects of your life that can have a positive impact on health.

Some of the most apparent ones, according to Stanford, are sleep, diet, exercise, stress management (and with spring coming around the corner, sunlight helps) and relationships. Here’s how you can make little improvements in each of these areas.

What’s the sleep ‘sweet spot’ to boost longevity?

How to improve your sleep

Improving sleep may seem like an impossible task. After getting home from school or work, time can just fly by. There are a couple things to do to help you have better sleep. First, ditch the blue light before sleep. As tempting as it is to scroll through social media or text with your friends right before going to bed, looking at blue light can negatively impact your sleep. According to the Cleveland Clinic, scrolling on your phone can also keep your brain active, which will make it harder to fall asleep.

Try turning off your electronics a couple of hours before bed and doing other activities, like reading a book or meditating before bed, which can help you to relax. Make sure to set your alarm before you put your phone down.

Getting more sleep can help you shed extra pounds, research says

Another thing that can improve your sleep is avoiding caffeine before bed, per the CDC. Try to stop drinking caffeine at noon each day, so that way when you go to sleep, the effects of it have worn off. Improving sleep is about making small changes that will benefit you in the long run. Good sleep is important for hormonal regulation and overall health, and it can set you up to make good decisions in the long run.

How to improve your diet

Improving your diet can feel like a daunting task. One easy way to make changes is to think about making simple switches. If you eat chips with lunch, consider swapping them for carrots and celery. If you’re cooking a pasta dish, consider switching the white flour pasta for a chickpea or red lentil pasta. If you love fried chicken, try making a baked version.

Want to help kids thrive? Focus on these 5 aspects of health

A few of these switches can be helpful in making incremental, positive changes toward health. Also consider what you can add to meals that you love. Say you really like mashed potatoes — consider doing half potato and then half cauliflower. Or think about a pasta dish you like, such as baked ziti. Think about how you can add broccoli and spinach to it. If your diet could use some improvement, chances are if you immediately switch to salads all the time, you won’t be making sustainable changes.

There are other small changes you can make. Healthline suggests that you pay attention to protein intake and stay hydrated throughout the day. Another tip is to stay away from diet foods. Think about eating whole foods when trying to improve your diet.

Eating healthy without cooking or takeout — how to accomplish your New Year’s resolution

How to start exercising

If you’ve stopped exercising, it’s not too late to start doing it again. Real Simple suggests that when you’re trying to get back into the swing of exercising, start small. Instead of immediately trying to go back to where you were when you were exercising the most, get back into the habit of doing some movement each day.

The best exercise to do is the one that you will do consistently and that you like. Experiment with fitness classes or going to the gym or exercising at home or outside. Finding a routine that you like can be helpful to start exercising.

Another way to start exercising is to create accountability for yourself. Talk to a friend about getting back into a routine and develop an accountability plan. Even if you start out small, doing a little bit of exercise each week can help you to feel better.

Why sunlight matters for stress management

Stress management can be a tricky thing to do. According to the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Program, managing stress can be done by identifying the cause of the stress and then responding accordingly. Sunlight also can be an important part of stress management.

According to The Wellesley News, sunlight can make us feel less stressed. There’s just something about the sun that helps us feel better. According to a study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, sunlight increases the amount of vitamin D that you absorb — many people are deficient in this, so getting enough light each day can help your health.

When working a 9 to 5, it can be hard to find the time to go outside. Consider taking your lunch break outside. This is a great time to go for a short, brisk walk as well, which can help you get some movement in. Your mood may also be positively impacted by spending more time in the sun.

How is using your cellphone at a restaurant connected with relationship satisfaction?

How to focus on relationships

Focusing on relationships can improve your overall health. If you’re happy with your relationships, you may also be more inclined to spend more time improving your health in other ways, too.

Improving relationships is more of an art than it is a science. Spending time with the people you love can help you improve your relationships. When you’re with a person you love, take time to listen to them — really listen to them — and think about what they’re saying. Make sure to let people in your life know that you value them. It can improve your overall mood and health to have strong relationships.