Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Trust a woman to bring some pragmatic discussion to the national debate on contraceptive coverage. Writing for TIME, Erika Christakis reminds the nation that taxpayers spend more than $11 billion each year (in 2001 dollars) on costs resulting from unintended pregnancy. That number includes only public insurance costs and not the larger financial burdens of bringing up unwanted children.

Before the nation cuts back on access to birth control as the Catholic bishops demand and candidates like Republican frontrunner Rick Santorum advocate, about half of all pregnancies in America are unintended, says the Guttmacher Institute. By age 45, more than 40% of all American women will have had at least one abortion, a rate twice that of countries in Europe with more liberal abortion laws and widely available contraception.

Knowing that more than half of births to women under 30 now occur outside of marriage — a condition many would like to change for both mother and children, how can Catholic bishops and Republican leaders propose moving against available contraception as outlined by President Obama in his compromise to religious leaders?

To suggest — as the Senate Blount bill proposes — that any moral offence is justification for refusing health care coverage for an employer puts individual employers in charge of employee health care.

And if you believe that sterilizations just might be the answer to end this insanity, the Philadelphia Inquirer writes an in-depth piece that Catholic bishops in the US are also cracking down on sterilzation at the woman’s request — having one’s tubes tied after the birth of a child — denouncing is as “coercive,” “insulting,” “unconstitutional,” “beligerent” and “dangerous.”

New old contraception fight just beginning Digital Journal

Right Wingers Go Wild Against Women Around the Country Daily Beast

More DFR

Avoiding Dementia

Psychology Today reminds us in ‘How to Save Your Brain’ that fighting dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in older age is heavily impacted by lifestyle decisions throughout our entire life.

Scientists attribute the debilitating disorder to the gradual accumulation between brain cells of a toxic protein, beta-amyloid, that blocks the transmission of information from cell to cell, wipes out synapses, and disrupts basic neuron function, leading to cell death. Inflammatory processes are also involved in memory loss.

The same lifestyle choices that lead people to obesity and heart disease also increase the likelihood that one will suffer from dementia. Every food choice that we make in life can impact our brains later on. Anti-inflammatory foods that work as deterrents to dementia include:

1. Dark chocolate with low sugar but high cocoa content

2. Red wine

3. Clams and other seafood rich in B12

4. Asparagus

5. Wild salmon and other oily fish

6. Walnuts high in omega-6

7. Cherries and blueberries, raspberries and strawberries

8. Tumeric which contains curcumin; ginger is a close cousin

9. Apple for quercetin; capers and red onion are also excellent sources