Quick catch-up over here. too

Apologies for not posting for so long. I posted a short explaination over on the Thrifty Mom blog.

So, the financial news sucks, but the diet news is much better.

I'm down to 168lbs, that's over 150lbs lost. I read about a theory that when a person is on a high fat diet, such as mine, that any excess protein can trigger an insulin response and stall weightloss. I decided to try cutting back my protein, and upping my fat, and, obviously, have had a good response to it!

I'm also doing strength training 4 times a week (crunches, squats, push-ups, free weights) and, by golly, my thighs are getting pretty muscle-y!  LOL!

But here's the best part for anyone who has followed me on my low-carbohydrate diet journey then onto the Paleolithic diet WOE, I went to the doctor for my annual check-up.  It was a blast.

These folks hadn't seen me since my six week post partum (this is my OB I'm talking about, here) check up and I weigh 155lbs LESS now. Also, after getting all the girly stuffs (oh, how we look forward to the boob squishing!) out of the way, I requested that my BP and cholesterol be taken.

Well, my blood pressure was fine and my cholesterol was 136. ONE THIRTY SIX. That's 10pts lower than it's ever been in my life!  Bodog, whom I put on low carb as soon as he came home from hospital, has seen his BP and cholesterol sink to normal.

After eight months of eating fat, meat, eggs, cheese, butter, and v. limited green veg, my cholesterol has IMPROVED.  I would love to have had the whole profile done, but, alas, it costs too much.  Perhaps next year when I've been eating paleo for 20 months.

Right. That's all I have to report today. I'll keep you updated on the diet, the financial situation, etc. Please feel free to join us on the Evil Genius Woman forums where we have a small (so far) but enthusiastic community of dieters.

Also please check out my newest website The Thrifty Mom Dot Com, your one-stop source for all things parenting, dieting, and snarky!  We'll be showcasing our new diet/foodie t-shirts and gifts there soon.

Quick catch-up

Ugh! So sorry for the dearth of posts!

I had a financial re-boot in my life that I'm dealing with.

Briefly: last wednesday (April 22) due to some "downsizing", the fullfillment service that I use for some of my products (at Evil Genius Tees and Evil Genius Woman) will be making changes that will effectively halve my income.

Cut income in half.

Halvsies.

This sucks and it's wrong on many levels and I suspect they are either dancing around bankruptcy or being sold. But, bottom line is that it is what it is.  I won't make further comment because it would nessessitate the use of Very. Very. Bad. Words.

So we're in a recession and I just got a 50% pay cut, so to speak. w00t.

Good thing I'm The Thrifty Mom, eh?

I'll keep you updated on how things are going. Meanwhile, the bubs (well, the oldest 4) are taking swimming lessons that I have no idea how I'm gonna pay for, but am determined not to cancel. Number 1) they are adoring it, and 2) I promised, damnit, and no effing company who can't get their effing poop in a group is gonna keep my wee ones from swimming lessons and make me go back on my word.

Deeeeeep breaths.

Right.

So, please check out the corresponding update on my Thrifty Dieter's blog (good news in diet land!) and run over to my newest webpage: The Thrifty Mom Dot Com where I bring together both blogs, plus the forum, and many many articles, tips, and general snarky-ness to come! Please feel free to leave comments and critiques for me in the comments here. If you see anything out of whack, let me know.

Also note my spiffy new RSS feed button in the sidebar and my donate button. Yeah, yeah, I know. I hate to do it but "needs must when the devil drives", right?  So if you enjoy the blogs, consider dropping a quarter into the piggybank to help pay for hosting ... and swimming lessons, LOL!

Eat me. No, wait ... I mean, eat yourself.

This hilarious post by Tom Naughton over at Fathead has me still giggling.

It is true when you think about it and I am SO gonna start calling the established nutrition anti-science crowd "The Holy Church of Accepted Advice For Living A Long and Healthy Life".

Skinny Asians and Leaner Pigs

I am constantly fascinated by Twitterers and bloggers, article writers and folks IRL who faithfully regurgitate non-truths and anti-science from the low-fat, high-carb establishment.

I've already had one Tweep storm off in a huff, taking her ball and going home on Twitter because I dared to say that I disagreed with her opinion that overeating causes us to be fat, period, and that furthermore, overeating was a compulsion that we could not control.

(She never explained how I had lost 140lbs if I was labouring under this brain-grip.  I was keen to know.  Thought I had Heroes-like superpowers.)

At any rate, here's two more articles full of bullshit that were Tweeted today:

(NOTE: I do not know these Tweeps, so I do not know what their opinions are on said articles. They may think they're craptacular as well. I'm not saying that they agree, just that these articles might be taken on faith as actual science by the credulous.)

This one, about the Korean rate of obesity being so low is interesting:

"the obesity ratio for Korea was 3.5 percent. Closely trailing Korea at 3.9 percent was Japan, which is the other Asian country in the Western-heavy club. The fact book is based on a survey of people aged 15 or older conducted in 2006 or the latest year available. Switzerland came in third with an overall obesity ratio of 7.7 percent. Norway and Italy came in at 9.0 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.

Bringing up the rear was the United States which had a chunky ratio of 34.3 percent. Other countries with the highest obesity rates were Mexico (30.0 percent), New Zealand (25.0 percent), Britain (24.0 percent) and Greece (21.9 percent). "

Yow. We're 1/3 fatter than our closest continental European fatties? And Sumo Supersized compared to the asians?  Argh!

But then the article wraps up with this odd statement:

"A Ministry of Strategy and Finance official in charge of dealing with OECD reports said the healthy condition for Koreans and Japanese seems to be due to traditionally vegetarian diets for the Asian countries. "

Eh?  I've always understood the asian cuisine to be mostly veg and meat w/ rice and noodles as a side dish. NOT vegetarian.  In fact, Wikipedia sez of Koren cuisine:

"The consumption of pork and beef increased vastly in Korea in the 1970s. The per-capita consumption of meat was 3.6 kilograms in 1961, which increased to 11 kilograms per person in 1979. The result of this increased meat consumption brought about the increase of bulgogi restaurants which gave the middle class of South Korea the ability to enjoy meat regularly. The consumption of meat rose to 40 kilograms in 1997, while fish consumption was 49.5 kilograms in 1998."

Hmm. Koreans have eaten dog for centuries. I'm pretty sure that's not vegetarian.

Speaking of not vegetarian, here's a smackdown of my fave meat, pork.  It's full of outdated thinking and they start in on the fat-bashing immediately. Wanna bet 89% of the people who read this over breakfast were snarfing a bagel or a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs?

"whether a meat is red or white isn't the best indication of the type and amount of fat it contains, Brewer says. A serving of chicken from the leg, skin on, contains more saturated fat and about the same amount of cholesterol as the same-sized serving of 95% lean ground beef."

They even invoke the idiotic 'study' about meat=death. *yawn*  You remember that one? Where the meat eaters who died just happened to be the sedentary, overweight, smokers ... but it was that damned red meat whut killed 'em!

Here's an interesting tidbit:

"Pork is leaner today. Several decades ago, the meat industry responded to consumer demand by finding ways to make meat less fatty. The pork industry, in particular, began to breed for leaner pigs. The result, says Ceci Snyder, assistant vice president of the National Pork Board in Des Moines, was that the average pork loin on the market in 1982 was 64% leaner than one in 1970. The fat content of pork has continued to drop -- albeit more slowly -- since then."

So ... wait.

About 40 years ago we all dropped our fat and upped our carbs at the advice of the FDA, and real butter, lard, real cream, etc left our supermarket shelves; all our dairy products became low fat, and we all started nervously watching our fat intake to the point where we demaned they breed leaner livestock?  And at the same time our rates of diabetes and heart disease and obesity began to climb to the percipitous rise they now enjoy?

But fat is bad for us?

As a lolcat would say: ai haz a confoozled

Paleo diet = grapefruit diet? Give me a break!

Our Stupid Article for the Day has been found!

(I thought about doing a Stupid Article Saturday every week, but, honestly, I find stupid diet articles several times a week.  And why wait?  Why delay gratification for snark?!  Let's get at it ...)

WebMD's Worst Diets Ever - diets that don't work.

Uh-huh. Grab your tinfoil hats, folks!  Let's see what Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD has to say!

First paragraph she jumps right on us primal types with this snotty little snippet:

"You've heard of them, maybe even tried them: miraculous-sounding diets that claim to melt off pounds with minimal effort. There are hundreds of these quick-fix diets out there, from the grapefruit diet to the detox diet to the "caveman" diet."

Ohh, burn!  Put us in quotes like the Paleolithic / Primal Way of Eating is a freaky fresh diet some new-age hippie in Cali just pulled out of his homeopathically cleansed arse.  Nope, honey. Been around way longer than every other. Try 2 million years.

Wow, and Ms Dawn Jackson-Blatner (Say that out loud. I guarantee you'll laugh. Sorry ... unnessessary snark. I'm OK now. ... *snort*) is so far off the farkin' mark I can barely see her from here:

"One reason's it's so hard to tell the difference is that even the worst diets will likely result in weight loss, at least initially. But it does little good to lose weight, experts say, if it comes right back.

"Don't be fooled into thinking it is because of some magical food, pill or potion. What causes weight loss is eating fewer calories than you burn," says Dawn Jackson-Blatner, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (ADA).

WTF? Are real professional people STILL clinging to this insane, untrue and fully disproved notion?!  It is NOT that simple, people. Fat metabolism is a complex, dynamic process. It's NOT just "calories in, calories out".

Brace yourself, there's more from ol' Jackson-Blatner:

"Crazy, unbalanced diets cause weight loss because they are basically low-calorie diets."

Golly bob howdy!  Really?  I my own self have, to date, lost 140lbs on a "crazy unbalanced diet" and am currently losing on 2500-3000 calories a day.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Do I have special DNA altered by space aliens?  Cool!

On to the worst diets. Diet number one is us paleo / primal people (ohh, should I have put that in quotes?)

"1. Diets that focus on only a few foods or food groups (like the cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, strict vegan diets, raw food diets, and many low-carb diets). Beware of any diet that rules out entire food groups. People need to eat from a variety of food groups to get all the nutrients they need, says ADA spokeswoman Andrea Giancoli, MPH, RD."

Another little nugget of wisdom from the faux science sector. *rolls eyes*

People.  The 'balanced diet' concept is a fallacy.  Seriously.  We do NOT need grains or legumes or starchy tubers. Our bodies do not require bread, crackers, cookies, cake, corn, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, beans, or peanuts. We ran, hunted, bred, gathered, slept, and raised babies for 2 million years without any of these foods. 
That's a hella long time.  We get every vitamin and mineral, every nutrient our bodies need, from meat and veg.  If we "need a balanced diet" to survive then why aren't we extinct?

o hai, perhaps we are going to be soon!  According to these guys we all just lack willpower:

Yale University's David Katz, MD, author of The Flavor Point Diet, says that while restrictive diets do work initially, they fail over the long haul. You can lose weight on diets that focus on single foods (like cabbage soup), but how much cabbage soup can a person eat? Before long, you grow weary of eating the same foods every day, and cravings for favorite foods lead you back to your former eating behavior.
Keep in mind that all foods can fit into a healthy lifestyle in moderation -- even things like bacon, super-premium ice cream, and chips. And when diets forbid certain foods and dieters envision a life without their favorite treats, those diets usually fail. "Any time you restrict a certain food, it triggers cravings for the forbidden fruit and sets up a restriction-binge cycle," says Blatner. "

Yeah, yeah ... right. Poor us. We all have no control over ourselves whatsoever. *sniffle* and are entirely incapable of saying "Holy cow!  I'm the size of a cow!  If I don't stop this crap, I won't be alive to see my grandchildren!" 

We're all gonna fail without the sage advice and comforting wisdom of the misinformed nutrition industry!  Show me the food pyramid!  Show it to me! *weeps* If you need me I'll be running around, screaming, with my hands in the air!

...
...

Right. Did we get that out of our systems?

Let's look at the truth, shall we?

Thanks to the FDA and the nutrition industry we, as a people, have been nomming more and more carbs and sugar during the last 40 years and correspondingly growing more and more obese whilst opting in for such fun extras as diabetes and heart disease. (If fat is so bad for you, howcome heart disease is skyrocketing when everyone is obsessively watching his fat intake, hmm?)

Many of us are insulin resistant, almost all of us are bombarded with creamy, gooey, flakey, crispy, carby, sugary CRAP all day every day. No wonder we can't stick to any diets. We have become addicted to soda and crisps, to pizza and candy bars.  50 years ago, a delicious treat, eaten AT MOST, once a day, after supper, was a fresh apple pie made from butter, flour, sugar, spices, and tart apples.  Just plain food with the minimum sugar cuz it was expensive.  And it was a special treat.  Things like candy and ice cream was a rare indulgence when you went into town.  You drank water or cider or tea and ate meat and veg the rest of the day.

Nowdays our feet hit the floor and we start sucking down the carbs/sugars. We eat nasty breakfast cereals with scoops of sugar, toaster pastries, jellies on our 2 slices of toast.  We snack all day on crisps and candy and cookies; we suck down sodas and sports drinks and flavoured waters. Even V-8 is loaded with carbs and sugar!  We have dessert after both dinner and supper - we snack in between. We gorge on fast food and worry about the fat. Have you looked at the carb and sugar content of that chinese take-away?!

We are a nation conditioned to eat and stimulated to do so by the carb/sugars we consume. They raise our blood sugar, then crash it, insulin floods in, and we eat. Rinse and repeat, over and over.  All day.  Every day.

You have to break this cycle.

I'm NOT trying to flog the Paleo Way of Eating.  It's not right for many, but it does work.  The truth and the real science is that you can lose weight and keep it off if you quit listening to the nutrition and diet industries.  Stop eating processed foods, cut out most of the carbs and sugars, eat more vegetables (NO, corn and potatoes are not vegetables!), move your body more, get outside in the sunshine without your SPF15.

No, it's not easy to start and there will be some rough patches. There is no magic pill. Like a marriage or like raising a kid, changing the way you eat permanently is tough. You have to have the determination to do it.

But all those things are worth it, doncha think?


Thoughts? Brickbats?  Have you lost weight and kept it off on anything the industry would call a fad diet?  I'd LOVE to hear about it!

Today's funneh

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

What did *I* do over Spring Break? Lemme TELL ya ...

Right. Is Thursday over?  Can I come out now?

*whew* What a day.

What a week!

It's been Spring Break here and we all here at The Burrow have been trying our best to relax.

NOT happenin'!

First, I decided to take advantage of the break and test Fiver's readiness for toilet learning.  He's doing surprisingly well, but, like anything, it has to be, well ... learned. Plus wee willies tend to repose at a barely acute angle.  It's like living with a tiny, fast, and highly mobile, fire hose.

Second, Tuesday was The Human Crash Test Dummy's birthday. Daddy waited till the last second to get gifts and a balloon (that day!), and I was stuck at home baking and decorating the cake and dealing with the tow truck guy, twice. (*grits teeth* cuz lovely, lovely FIL just farkin' HAD to move the boat and the car out of his yard THAT farkin' day - but that's another blog post.)

ANYway, I finally got the cake done, got the gifts wrapped, and the party and gorging went off without a hitch. (I'll post cake pics later.)

Wednesday was comic day, so, again, Bodog was gone for a long stretch. All of the kids seemed to suddenly not feel well, they all were sniffly, snotty, red-faced, and feverish.  Super.

Then came yesterday.

Everyone, including Bodog and omitting myself and THCTD (who is easily has the best immune system of all of mine), was miserable. Sore throtes, high fevers, rashes.

Wait ... did she say "rashes"?

Yes.  Yes, I farkin' did.

Remember Boy's bout with Scarlet Fever?

Well, apparently, it's worked its way back around and is visiting a few more of the siblings. w00t.

So, we needed feed, we needed groceries, and we needed meds. I rang the best pediatrician's office on the planet (Sandhills Pediatrics in Columbia SC) and spoke with our lovely Dr. Clemson's lovely Nurse Cheerful who called in scripts because she RAWKS.

(Incidentally, in case you were curious, my plans for the holiday [for myself] were - since the rest of the family would be sleeping late each morning - to get an arseload of work done. Get my webpages up, maybe actually work on my stores. Plus do some cleaning. Maybe work out in the barnyard.

*pauses to roll about helplessly on the floor, laughing*

Yeah.  Right.  All THAT happened.

Hmmph.)

So, it's Thursday, I'm sat at the computer, trying to do some coding whilst everyone else has a nice long snooze - including Bodog, who's snoring loudly on the couch right next to my desk (I really, really need some noise cancelling headphones. Really.) - and eyeballing the clock because I don't want to be out the whole rest of the damned day at the bloody buggery Wal-Mart when there's a thousand things that want doing around the hou--

... and I hear a crash.

Well, crashes are not uncommon, even during naptime (The bubs are not required to actually sleep. They simply must be quiet and in their rooms for the allotted time period.), so I turn around, and Boy strolls into the family room.

"Hey, Momma?"

(Why do they all do this? If I'm staring right at you, then I must be paying attention. Don't start each convo with "Hey, Momma?")

"I think Fiver might have hurt himself."

"Yeah?" (I listen for weeping but hear none.) "What part did he hurt?"

(Another 'in case you are curious' note here. We try to teach our kids to not overreact to any situation, that the key to dealing with emergencies or crises is to remain calm. You can't deal with stuff if you are crying, panicked, irrational, crazy. Just settle down and do what needs to be done. I abhore people - especially women - who weep, wring their hands, and freak out over things, expecting someone else to deal with it. You are NOT doing anyone any good and the whole "I'm so helpless and don't know what to do" victim mindset is STUPID.  My children will not learn this.)

ANYway, at this juncture, boy calmly begins a rambling recital of the steps that lead up to the whatever-it-was.  I'm rising to my feet to go check on my baby as he's talking.

Then, from the darkened foyer, behind Boy, just like a classic B-movie zombie, staggers Fiver.  He's got a mouthfull of blood, blood down his chin, and blood all over the front of his shirt.  Only when he sees me does he start crying.

I almost screamed like a girl.

But true to my calm-in-emergencies nature I just snatched him up (I did do one thing: I barked at Boy something hurried along the lines of 'don't stand about jaw-jackin' if your brother is bleeding'*) and swept Fiver off to the bathroom for cleaning and inspection.

His lip was well and truely split, something that in retrospect could have done with a stitch, but it was so swollen and tattered (his teeth were involved somehow, but I can't figure if he bit his lip or just smashed it against his bottom teeth.) that I didn't realise. At any rate he was quiet and calm and even held his own washrag full of ice against his lip while I cleaned up and Boy fetched the ibuprofen.

So alls well that ends well. His lip is a bit puffy but not too bad and he's happy as a clam. I got everyone's scripts (and the groceries and the feed and, yes, I got back pretty late) so all the sickies should begin to feel better soon.  Oh, and at some point either Wednesday or yesterday Fiver actually did a wee in the toilet!  I was so proud!

Gosh. I wonder what today will bring?


*I apologised to Boy later for snapping at him, explaining that I was just shocked at the sight of his brother. We conferred and realised that when he left the bedroom the bleeding wasn't nearly so bad and that the sight of Fiver with all the blood startled him, too!


-----

Do you have any stories of terrifying kid hurts?  How did you deal with it?  How did your child handle it?  I'd love to hear your experiences!

Self control, obesity, parenting, and BMI

Straight from the news today:

And here's a "duh" one for you today: kids who lack self control may be prone to weight gain.

Ya think?

"Small children who can't keep their hands out of the cookie jar -- in other words, those who have more difficulty delaying gratification -- appear more likely to be overweight as they get older."

""We don't know if it's parenting or something innate to the kid," said Dr. Julie C. Lumeng, lead author of the food study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School."

I propose that there's a great deal of bad parenting involved (which doesn't mean that I discount there being a genetic factor as well).

Let's look at it. How overindulged are today's kids? How many times have you seen anxious parents with their 3 year old securely strapped into the shopping cart (which has one of those ridiculous covers, natch!) hurrying around the grocery whilst little Steele or wee Emylee whines, cries, shouts, begs, and generally shows his/her arse? How often do you see Jeff and Jennifer dancing frantically around, placating, begging, and bribing said child to be quiet/patient?  How often does that child end up at the check out with a toy (or usually) some crap sweet food?

How often are today's kids showered with gifts and food on almost every major holiday? How many kids get insanely complex and expensive birthday parties?

Self centeredness is learned.

When you give Zohee or PJ, Trynitee or Trey, anything and everything because you "want them to have everything I didn't", when you make them the almighty nucleus of the family and never enforce any rules because it's easier to just give in, well, you produce a little tyrant with NO self control.  Why should Ky'lah delay gratification? She's a princess!  A diva!  She gets what she wants, when she wants it.

And always has.

Thankfully, the article ends on a sane note to this effect:

""If you have a child that has difficulty delaying gratification, you could help that child learn those skills," said Lumeng, an assistant research scientist at the university's Center for Human Growth and Development.

[snip]
"This really gives people who are looking at obesity prevention, which is so critical at this time, something to develop an intervention around," Zeller added. "Pediatricians can do it, and parents understand the idea of delaying gratification. We live in such an immediate gratification environment." "

You said it sister. But we, as parents, can attempt to control the environment to which our kids are exposed.  Of course that means we must parent.

-----

And on a similar topic: study finds 1 in 5 4 year olds obese.

Now, before I get started on this one, let me state, for the record, that I do NOT believe that the BMI is accurate. BUT, you have to admit that a 4 year old whose BMI is in the obese range (not overweight, obese) is unhealthily fat.

I've seen a disturbing trend, especially amongst folks on Twitter, of people who say the BMI is hogwash (true) and so there are really not hardly any overweight people at all (dangerously, stupidly NOT true, people.  Wake up.)  Yes, yes, I know all about the media and how healthy, lucious, zaftig women like Mae West and Betty Grable have fallen out of favour and been replaced by stick insects.

I AGREE that this is stupidity, but you cannot, if you've any sense at all, tell me that we do NOT have an obesity/ill health problem in America. There is a difference between pleasently plump and healthy; and obese, sweating, wheezing, and/or ILL.

Sticking your fingers in your ears and going "La, la, laaaa, I can't heeeear you!" is NOT helping.

Right. Rant over. On to snippets from the article:

"A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age."



"Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests."

'The study is an analysis of nationally representative height and weight data on 8,550 preschoolers born in 2001."



"The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a 'minority majority' nation," he said. Without interventions, the next generation "will be at very high risk" for heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, joint diseases and other problems connected with obesity, said Flores, who was not involved in the new research."
On the subject of BMI:

"Children were considered obese if their body-mass index, a height-weight ratio, was in the 95th percentile or higher based on government BMI growth charts. For 4-year-olds, that would be a BMI of about 18.



For example, a girl who is 4 1/2 years old, 40 inches tall and 42 pounds would have a BMI of about 18, weighing 4 pounds more than the government's upper limit for that age, height and gender."

My youngest daughter, Bitty Girl, turned 5 in March, is 40 inches tall, and weighs 37lbs. I consider her to be of average weight and build. If she weighed 5 more lbs she would be unhealthily overweight in my opinion.  i consider this BMI assessment to be fairly accurate.

Here's a breath of fresh air. Finally an intelligent opinion:

""Jessica Burger, a member of the Little River Ottawa tribe and health director of a tribal clinic in Manistee, Mich., said many children at her clinic are overweight or obese, including preschoolers.



Burger, a nurse, said one culprit is gestational diabetes, which occurs during a mother's pregnancy. That increases children's chances of becoming overweight and is almost twice as common in American Indian women, compared with whites.


She also blamed the federal commodity program for low-income people that many American Indian families receive. The offerings include lots of pastas, rice and other high-carbohydrate foods that contribute to what Burger said is often called a "commod bod."


"When that's the predominant dietary base in a household without access to fresh fruits and vegetables, that really creates a better chance of a person becoming obese," she said."

Well said, Ms Burger.

Autism, smoking, and ... vinyl floors?

Intriguing study discoveres a link between autism and vinyl flooring.

"Bernard Weiss, a professor of environmental medicine at University of Rochester, said the connection between vinyl flooring and autism "turned up virtually by accident." He called it "intriguing and baffling at the same time."

Experts suspect that genetic and environmental factors combine to cause autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that has increased dramatically in children over the past 20 years.


In the new study, Swedish families were asked questions about flooring as part of research investigating allergies and indoor air pollutants. Phthalates, used to make soft plastic, have in previous studies been connected to allergies and asthma."

Bizarre. Of course, like any study, this one must be taken with a grain of salt. It may be, for instance, that people of a certain economic status happened to have the vinyl flooring, or folks from a particular part of the country.  Still, it's fascinating.

I find this tid-bit a lot more compelling:

"Children in the study also were twice as likely to have autism if their mothers smoked cigarettes. The autistic children also were more likely to have asthma."

I wonder if there is a whole tie-in to allergies/asthma and autism?