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The high price of cheap food
Dollar stores aren’t classified as traditional grocery stores and so aren’t usually included in studies comparing access to healthy foods with customers’ health. But they do sell food, mostly stuff with long shelf lives
Researchers at University of California Riverside looked at the distribution of dollar stores (there are more than 34,000 nationwide with surrounding health indexes). In parts of the country where dollar stores were more prevalent and presumably more likely to be a
“I want to raise awareness that higher grocery costs are pushing people to buy highly processed, lower quality food at dollar stores, and it is negatively impacting their health in a similar way to fast food,” said Ryan Bruellman, a UCR genetics, genomics and bioinformatics doctoral student and the study’s first author
Body of knowledge
Looped back and forth on itself, the small intestine fits neatly in your lower torso, but stretched out it is 18 to 23 feet long in a typical adult or roughly four times as long as the average person is tall
Mark your calendar
September is awareness month for blood and childhood cancers, food safety, cholesterol, sickle cell disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, sepsis, sports eye safety and pediculosis prevention. Yep, make sure your kids aren’t taking some little buddies (head lice) back to school or bringing them home
Doc talk
Pandiculation — generally refers to all of those things you do when you first wake up, such as stretching and yawning
Phobia of the week
Scotophobia — fear of the dark (Scottophobia is, of course, a fear of me.)
Life in Big Macs
One hour of vacuuming burns 238 calories (based on a 150-pound person) or the equivalent of 0.3 Big Macs
Best medicine
Obstetrician: I’m going to deliver your baby
Soon-to-be parents: Actually, we’d like him to keep his liver
Hypochondriac’s guide
Uncombable Hair Syndrome is a rare genetic scalp condition that causes dry, frizzy hair to stick straight out in multiple directions. It is often light blond or silver with a glassy shine. It cannot be combed flat, and mostly afflicts famous composers and theoretical physicists
Observation
“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.”
— English novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Medical history
This week in 1978, U.S. scientists announced the production of human-type insulin by a strain of E. coli bacteria that had been genetically engineered using gene-splicing techniques. The work was a joint effort by the biochemical firm Genentech Inc. in San Francisco and the City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles
A normal body’s production of insulin takes place within cells of the pancreas, programmed by certain genes. The scientists synthesized copies of these genes and inserted them into a weakened lab strain of the intestinal microbe Escherichia coli. In 1982, insulin was the first recombinant DNA drug to be marketed as Humulin by Eli Lilly & Co
Listicle with a Twisticle: Dirty Dozen+ Foods
Compiled by the Environmental Working Group, these are the types of produce with the highest measured pesticide residues in 2025
1. Strawberries (consistently highest)
2. Spinach
3. Kale, collard and mustard greens
4. Grapes
5. Peaches
6. Pears
7. Nectarines
8. Apples
9. Bell and hot peppers
10. Cherries
11. Blackberries (newly added)
12. Blueberries
13. Potatoes (rejoined list)
Curtains call
The first known fatality from a powered airplane crash was Lt. Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908), who was riding as a passenger on a demonstration flight of a plane being considered by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Propeller damage and failure caused the plane to crash in midflight. The pilot was Orville Wright, who survived but suffered serious injuries
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute
