Beans: Fabulous Health Benefits, Weight Management and Nutrition at Very Low Cost

Beans: Fabulous Health Benefits, Weight Management and Nutrition at Very Low Cost

Breaking News for Monday, December 29, 2008

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(NaturalNews) What if there were a delicious, versatile, meatless, high protein food that could almost magically bring you good health, help prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and keep your weight in check? You'd be willing to travel a way to get this food and pay a lot of money for it, wouldn't you? Actually, you probably already have some of this hiding in the back of your pantry, and if not it's available at the nearest grocery story at a very low price. This food is the mighty bean, an overlooked vegetable that is turning out to be a research superstar.

The bean is technically a legume, a class of foods that includes peas and lentils. One-quarter cup of any legume is equivalent in protein to an ounce of meat. A cup of legumes contains about 15 grams of protein with the exception of soybeans which contain a whopping 29 grams of protein in a cup. Beans are a cook's dream. They easily pick up the flavor of seasonings used in almost any recipe and blend right into almost any raw or cooked creation.

Studies show the bean is good for what ails us

Beans are generating a lot of interest in the scientific community because they are showing to provide protection from so many of the fearsome diseases of modern times. University studies have documented that eating beans on a regular basis reduces risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity. In fact, regular bean eaters weigh about 6.6 pounds less than non-bean eaters according to a recent Real Age article.

In a study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, men and women who consumed legumes 4 times a week had a 22% lower risk for heart disease than did people consuming legumes only once per week. In a follow-up study, men who adhered to a prudent diet that included greater consumption of legumes had a 30% lower risk of heart disease. People following the typical Western diet with low consumption rates for beans had a higher risk of heart disease.

A newly released series of studies from Colorado State University, reported in the Journal of Nutrition, found that eating beans and potatoes regularly could help prevent breast cancer. The studies, which will progress into a clinical trial using breast cancer survivors, may produce preventative diet plans for women who want to avoid breast cancer or a recurrence. Researchers introduced a carcinogen into the mammary glands of rats that were then fed a daily diet of different varieties of beans or potatoes in each of the separate studies. The rat control group did not receive beans or potatoes. At the completion of the three studies, the researchers collected data on the occurrence of cancerous mammary tumors, tumor mass and multiplicity of tumors. Results indicated that the more beans or potatoes included in the diet, the less the frequency for malignant tumors. Though some bean or potato varieties proved more effective at prevention, all beans were better at preventing cancer than a no-bean diet.

During another study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed data collected from 90,630 women who participated in the Nurses Health Study II, selecting women between the ages of 26 and 46 when the study began in 1991. After an eight-year follow-up, the researchers found that women who consumed beans or lentils at least twice a week were 24 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women who consumed them less than once a month.

It has been known for several years that inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) found in beans, legumes and some other vegetables exhibits potent anti-cancer action. Scientists have recently discovered an additional anti-cancer compound in legumes, known as inositol pentakisphosphate. In a study reported in Cancer Research, the newly discovered compound was tested in mouse models and on cancer cells. Not only was it found to inhibit the growth of tumors in mice independently, the phosphate also enhanced the effect of cytotoxic drugs in ovarian and lung cancer cells. This finding suggests that inositol pentakisphosphate could be used to sensitize cancer cells to the action of commonly used anti-cancer drugs.

The researchers concluded that the properties of inositol pentakisphosphate make it a promising therapeutic agent which is non-toxic, unlike conventional chemotherapy agents. And it was found to be non-toxic even at higher concentrations. The study director underscored the importance of a diet rich in foods such as beans, nuts and cereals that would help prevent cancer.

Beans have also been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer due to the presence of flavonols, phytonutrients which are found in many plant-based foods including beans. Another finding based on data review from the Nurse's Study II is women who ate lentils or beans just twice a week reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 24% compared to women who ate beans and lentils once a month or less.

In a study of nearly 35,000 women, those who ate four of more servings of legumes each week reduced their risk of developing colorectal cancer by approximately one-third. In a related study, people who had previously developed colon cancer were found able to reduce the risk of recurrence up to 45% by increasing their consumption of beans.

Several animal studies have concluded that incorporating beans into the diet can reduce the risk of developing colon cancer. In one study, rats were fed either pinto beans or milk protein as their main source of dietary protein. The bean fed rats had fewer tumors than the milk protein fed rats.

Other recent research conducted at the National Cancer Institute found that people who eat more dried legumes, such as pinto or navy beans, lentils, and bean soups have significantly less risk of developing colon cancer. Data culled from the Polyp Prevention Trial revealed that adding a significant amount of dry beans to one's existing diet has a strong protective effect against recurrence of precancerous polyps. Those participants who added the most dried beans to their diets had the most significantly reduced risk for recurrence of advanced polyps. On average, these people increase their dry bean consumption by four fold.

Beans offer a wealth of nutrition and a very low cost

Beans have significant antioxidant properties which make them a terrific anti-aging food. In a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, three varieties of beans ranked in the top four foods studied for antioxidant benefits. Red beans such as those used to make red beans and rice, red kidney beans, and pinto beans beat many other fruits and vegetables in antioxidant benefits.

Another study at the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences concluded that color is the key when choosing beans. Bean coats get their color and antioxidant capabilities from phenol and anthocyanins, and there is a link between the darker seed coats and higher phenol levels. This study also found red beans to have the highest antioxidant level, with black beans coming in second place.

Beans are a good source of soluble dietary fiber, containing about 4 grams per cup of cooked beans. Soluble fiber has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol in epidemiologic, clinical, and animal studies. Data from several human intervention trials indicate that consumption of canned and dry beans reduces both total and LDL cholesterol. Significant increases in HDL cholesterol and/or reduction in tryglycerides were also seen in many of the studies.

In addition to cholesterol, recent attention has been focuses on high levels of plasma homocysteine as a risk factor for vascular disease. High levels of homocysteine are correlated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Beans provide a significant amount of folate, one of the B vitamins found to reduce homocysteine levels.

Eating beans can help in maintaining desired weight levels. They can help reduce blood glucose, insulin, cholesterol concentrations, and reduce the incidence and consequences of diabetes.

Beans also contain energy sustaining complex carbohydrates, essential vitamins and minerals, and are very low in fat and sodium. A pound of almost every variety of organic dried beans can be bought for under one dollar, making beans a central player for anyone watching his or her budget.

Beans are a user friendly food

Some of the studies about the cancer-fighting benefits of beans have indicated that incorporating 3 cups of cooked beans a week into the diet can have significant health benefits. This may sound like a lot of beans, but it is easy to do. Beans make great main dishes, salad, soups, side dishes, and can be mashed or pureed for burritos and dips. They combine easily with other nutritious fare like vegetables, herbs and spices.

The only factor that seems to stand in the way of people eating beans is the intestinal gas they tend to produce. There are two easy ways around this problem. One is by soaking the beans for 12 to 15 hours before they are cooked. Pour off the water used for soaking, rinse and add fresh water for cooking. This soaking process replicates what nature had in mind for the bean.

Beans contain high levels of phytic acid or phytate, nature's way of preserving the bean as it lies on the ground waiting for the spring rains before it can germinate. When the rain comes, the bean soaks in the ground until this natural preservative is exhausted, and at that point the new plant is ready to grow and the nutrients it will need are released from the bean. After you have soaked beans for 12 to 15 hours, the phytate has been reduced and the nutrients in the bean have been made available. It is the preservative quality of phytate that make unsoaked beans so difficult to digest and so apt to produce gas when eaten.

The second way to reduce gas production is by using herbs and spices while cooking beans. Herbs and spices that go particularly well with beans include cumin, garlic, anise, fennel seeds, rosemary, caraway seeds, turmeric, lemongrass and coriander. And if you are really on flatulence patrol, get a bottle of digestive enzymes to make absolutely sure you are safe whether you have chosen to soak the beans or not. One that works particularly well with beans is V Gest from Enzymedica.

Additional Sources:

"Beans Investigated for Cancer-Fighting, Anti-diabetic Benefits", Colorado State University.

Elizabeth A Rondini and Maurice R. Bennink, "Beans and Cardiovascular Health", Michigan State University.

"Cancer and Nutrition", Asbestos.com website for The Mesothelioma Cancer Center.



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About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.


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Beans: Fabulous Health Benefits, Weight Management and Nutrition at Very Low Cost

Thermograms are a Much Safer Alternative to Mammograms

Thermograms are a Much Safer Alternative to Mammograms

After a lifetime of mind indoctrination and brainwashing by the disease establishment, it's often next to impossible to break away. We have been taught throughout our lives that the answer to our physical problems resides in our doctor's office. We've been made to believe that science reveals all answers and our own innate common sense is worth nothing. It is just this type of mind control that compels women to line up for mammograms, even though their common sense tells them that radiation causes cancer. The good news is that now there is a much safer alternative scientifically proven to be effective at early detection. For women who feel they must spend their time looking for lumps, two recent studies have documented the value of thermography

Breast thermography uses heat to detect abnormalities

The thermogram is a test using heat radiating from your own body to detect problems in the breast. It involves no contact with the body, no compression, and is completely painless. A thermogram combines advanced digital technology with ultra-sensitive infrared camera imaging. It does not use radiation, and can be done as frequently as anyone thinks is necessary. Thermograms work by creating infra-red images (heat pictures) that are then analyzed to find asymmetries anywhere in the chest and underarm area. Any abnormality that causes change in heat production is seen on a thermogram, so any source of inflammation such as infection, trauma to the breast, and even sun burn will cause abnormality in the thermal picture.

Breast thermography detects patterns of heat generated by the increased circulation produced by abnormal metabolic activity in cancer cells. This activity occurs long before a cancer starts to invade new tissue. A breast thermogram has the ability to identify a breast abnormality five to ten years before the problem can be found on a mammogram.

There's science behind this process

Normal tissue that is non-cancerous has a blood supply under the control of the autonomic nervous system. This system can either increase or decrease blood flow to cells. However, abnormal tissue indicating cancer or pre-cancer ensures its own survival by secreting chemicals that override the autonomic nervous system regulation, thereby creating its own steady blood supply. Cancers can be thought of as off the power grid of the body.

When a woman's hands are placed in cold water, an autonomic nervous system reflex occurs in the breasts. This reflex causes the blood vessels in non-cancerous tissue to constrict, but does not result in constriction of blood vessels supplying any cancerous growth. The resulting difference in blood flow can result in cancer showing up as 'hot spots' on thermograms.

A study reported in the American Journal of Surgery, October edition, included 92 women who had undergone a breast biopsy based on prior mammogram or ultrasound results. 60 of the biopsies were malignant, and 34 were benign (two of the women had two biopsies). These women were then given thermograms. Results indicted the thermograms identified 58 of the 60 malignancies for a sensitivity rate of 97%.

Another study reported in the May-June edition of the Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, reported a study of 15 women with palpable breast cancers who were preoperatively thermogrammed with three different infrared cameras – micro bolometer, quantum well, and photo voltaic - to compare the ability of these cameras to differentiate breast cancer from normal tissue. The quantum well and the photo voltaic cameras demonstrated the frequency difference between normal and cancerous breast tissue, with the photo voltaic camera displaying the greater clarity. The researchers reported that with selected image processing operations, more detailed frequency analyses could be applied to any suspicious area.

What goes on during a breast thermogram

Thermograms are taken at thermography centers. The woman disrobes above the waist and acclimates to room temperature for ten minutes after which the first of two series of images of the breasts is taken. Then the woman places her hands in cold water for one minute, after which the second set of images is taken. The images are evaluated by thermologists using signs and criteria established by the American Academy of Thermology to interpret thermogram data.

Breast thermograms do not diagnose breast cancer. They simply detect physiological changes in breast tissue that have been shown to correlate with the presence of cancer or pre-cancerous states as do mammograms. Breast cancer is only diagnosed by pathologist's microscopic examination of breast tissue.

Thermography centers have been around for several years in most major cities. They are definitely the wave of the future for early breast cancer detection. Amazingly, most traditional physicians don't know anything about them and continue to recommend mammograms.

Positive results suggest the need for further evaluation

Althouth a breast thermogram is a much safer form of screening that a mammogram, it too is just a screening. A thermogram evaluation yields a score ranging from 1 to 5. A rating of 1 implies no detectable thermal abnormalities, while a ranking of 5 suggests thermal abnormalities correlating with very significant risk for breast cancer. Positive results on a thermogram suggest the need for further evaluation as do positive results from a mammogram.

Early thermal abnormalities may result in a recommendation to repeat the process in 60-120 days. Depending on the rating score and clinical findings, a referral may be made for targeted ultrasound or to a breast specialist for possible biopsy. At this point, any practitioner so trained may recommend nutritional, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle interventions to address the thermal abnormalities.

Many providers of thermograms accept self-referrals as well as referrals from healthcare practitioners. However, they are not as readily covered by insurance, in keeping with the trend in the insurance industry to cover toxic treatments but not procedures geared to keeping us healthy.

A recent study suggested that many breast lumps disappear on their own

Scientists who completed a recent study on the effects of mammograms concluded that some of the cancers detected could spontaneously regress if they were not discovered and treated. This conclusion appeals to common sense, because we know one of the basic principals of function in the body is constant striving to heal and restore homeostasis.

The disease establishment wants us to devote time and energy in a continuous search for breast lumps. We are told to examine ourselves every morning, and get as many mammograms as we can. After all, the sooner we can find the tiniest lump, the sooner we can be herded into the great cancer machine, and more money will be available to feed that machine. Yet when we are finally spit out the other end of that machine we are often ruined and unable to ever regain our health. Women have been turned into recruitment agents for this machine. We have been programmed to the point that many women never go a day without worrying about breast cancer.

As a people we tend to have limits to our physical, mental, emotional and psychological resources. How we direct these resources is our choice. We can spend our resources taking tests, examining ourselves for lumps and worrying. Or we can spend our time and resources raising our health status to the level where breast cancer becomes a non-issue.

Source

Merry Christmas

And Happy new year in advance! I'm just going golfing this morning.

Stocks fall on drip-drop of bad news

Stocks fall on drip-drop of bad news

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks fell Monday in a thinly traded session amid concerns about fourth-quarter corporate earnings, falling oil prices and ongoing woes in the auto industry.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 0.7% according to early tallies. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index dipped 2% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) was lost 1.8%.

Stocks languished for most of the morning before falling sharply in the afternoon as oil prices slid below $40 a barrel. That sent shares of oil industry firms Chevron Corp (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) lower and weighed on the Dow. But the major indexes recovered some ground near the closing bell.

Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds fell as the government auctioned $92 billion in short-term debt. Gold prices rose.

"The general sentiment remains very weak," said David Levy, a portfolio manager at Kenjol Capital Management.

The market could be pressured in the weeks ahead as companies begin reporting fourth-quarter results, which are expected to remain soft, Levy added.

Still, December and January are traditionally some of the best months for stocks, and many investors say January sets the tone for the rest of the year.

"There's no doubt that there are plenty of opportunities in the market," Levy said. "But we can't say if there are other shoes left to drop."

Stocks may find some support early next year as details about President-elect Obama's stimulus plan become apparent, according to Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. in New York. Obama has called for an economic stimulus that would focus on rebuilding infrastructure and creating jobs. It is projected to cost between $500 billion and $700 billion over two years.

"As we get answers and more clarity on the fiscal stimulus plan, I think this market is going to celebrate that news," Hogan told CNNMoney.com.

Trading is expected to be volatile this week, with many market participants out for the holiday. Markets will close early on Wednesday and will remain closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday.

Stocks ended mixed on Friday as investors responded to the Bush administration's plan to bail out the auto industry, and readjusted portfolios amid a plethora of options expirations.

Market breadth was negative. Declining shares outnumbered advancers by more than 2-to-1 with about 90 million shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange.

Automakers: Shares of Toyota (TM) fell after Japan's leading carmaker warned it will suffer an operating loss next year.

Toyota has been hit by declining U.S. sales and a stronger yen, which hurts profits when overseas sales are converted into the Japanese currency.

Meanwhile, shares of General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) fell more than 20% after analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded the stock and warned that the nation's leading automaker may already be drained of equity.

"In light of the complete overhaul of GM's capital structure that will likely be required to turn the company into a 'viable' entity and to comply with the government's requirements...[for]...the just-agreed-upon $13.4 billion in loans, we think existing equity holders will be largely (if not entirely) wiped out in the process," said Credit Suisse analysts in a research report.

President Bush said Friday the government will lend $13.4 billion to General Motors and Chrylser from the $700 billion financial-rescue plan.

Truck and tractor maker Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) announced plans to lay off more than 800 employees at one of its engine plants and said it will take other steps to cut costs. The stock fell nearly 3%.

Corporate news: Moody's Investor Services placed Alcoa's (AA, Fortune 500) credit rating under review for a possible downgrade due to weakening demand and falling aluminum prices. Alcoa shares ended down 5%.

Shares of drugstore chain Walgreens fell after the company said its first-quarter net income fell 11% and announced plans to further limit store openings next year.

Walgreens (WAG, Fortune 500) posted net income of $408 million, or 41 cents a share, for the quarter ended Nov. 30, compared with $456 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of 46 cents.

Insurance giant American International Group said it will sell Hartford Steam Boiler, a subsidiary equipment insurer, to Munich Re Group for $742 million in cash and $76 million in stock.

AIG has been allocated more than $150 billion in government financing and was effectively nationalized in September. The company, which nearly collapsed earlier this year, has said it will repay the government loans by selling assets.

Shares of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) were up about 3%.

Retail: The market is also being pressured by concerns about anemic consumer spending.

In the latest sign of consumer distress, online holiday sales registered a declined for the first time in seven years, according to sales tracker ComScore.

Online spending for the first 49 days of the critical November-December gift-buying period fell 1% to $24.03 billion, compared to $24.15 billion over the same period last year, ComScore said.

That is a problem because consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the nation's overall economic activity.

Global economy: Central bankers in China and finance ministers in Ireland announced new steps aimed at limiting the global economic slowdown.

People's Bank of China lowered its benchmark 1-year lending rate to 2.25% from 2.52%, according to published reports. Last month, China cut its key rate by more than a percent as part of Beijing's multibillion-dollar plan to keep its economy afloat.

Meanwhile, finance ministers in Ireland announced a $7.7 billion bailout of three of the country's leading banks.

"The objective of these decisions is to ensure that the financial system in Ireland meets the everyday financial needs of individuals, businesses and the overall economy," said Brian Cowen, Ireland's prime minister in a statement.

Under the terms of the bailout, the government will take a majority stake in Anglo Irish Bank (AGIB.Y) and will inject capital into Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (IRLBF).

Bonds: The benchmark 10-year note fell 9/32 to 114 7/32 and its yield rose to 2.14% from 2.07% on Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite direction. The 10-year yield dipped below 3% in November for the first time since the note was first issued in 1962.

Lending rates were mixed. The 3-month Libor rate slipped to 1.47% from 1.49% Friday, according to Bloomberg. The overnight Libor was unchanged at 0.11%. Libor is a key bank lending rate.

Other markets: In global trading, Asian markets were mixed, with Japan's Nikkei rising 1.5%. Major indexes in Europe closed lower.

The dollar was mixed versus the euro and gained against the pound and the yen.

U.S. light crude oil for February delivery was down $2.45 to settle at $39.91 a barrel in New York.

COMEX gold for February delivery gained $9.80 to $847.20 an ounce.

Gasoline prices fell overnight to a national average of $1.663 a gallon from $1.668, according to a survey of credit-card swipes released Monday by motorist group AAA.

CNN Business

Snow, snow (and plenty of ice) everywhere

Snow, snow (and plenty of ice) everywhere
Snowstorms and icy conditions on Sunday delayed flights across the northern United States, caused havoc on roads and left thousands without electricity.
A worker shovels snow as the storm hits Chicago, Illinois.

A worker shovels snow as the storm hits Chicago, Illinois.
more photos »

At least one death has been attributed to storms that hit all over the country in the past week. A 44-year-old Massachusetts man died Friday when a tree limb weighed down by snow fell on him, authorities said.

Forecasters say there's more cold weather to come.

Authorities urged motorists in north-central and northeast Iowa to stay off roads because of poor visibility caused by blowing snow. Authorities prohibited tow trucks from operating on U.S. Highway 20, near the border with Minnesota, because of concerns the tow trucks would get stuck.

Forecasters said wind chills of 20 below and 30 below zero were possible in much of the rest of the Midwest, prompting wind chill advisories and warnings for the region into Monday morning.

Blizzard warnings also were expected to be in effect into Monday for parts of Maine and western parts of Michigan's lower peninsula.

In much of Maine, between 10 and 18 inches of snow was expected to fall Sunday and Monday, the weather service said. Whiteout conditions were expected at night, with wind gusts of up to 45 mph, the weather service said.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation ordered snowplow drivers off the road until Sunday morning in 13 southwest counties, because of poor visibility, blowing snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph, an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.
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* Drivers warned to stay off snowy roads
* Northeast braces for storm
* FAA.gov: Flight delay information

The western U.S. has also been hit with the cold blast. Parts of Washington saw 2 to 3 feet of snow last week. On Friday, two buses carrying 80 people collided on a road in Seattle and crashed through a metal railing, where they hung over a freeway for several hours before two trucks rescued them.

Many roads in Walla Walla, Washington, had yet to be plowed by Saturday, and the only practical way to drive on them was to have chains on tires, iReporter Aaron Cloward said. Video Watch how driving has been difficult in Walla Walla »

Cloward, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, said he had "never seen roads this bad or snow this bad." He also said he's been unable to free his car.

"Everything is sold out -- snow shovels, ice melt, salt, chains ... so I don't know how to get out," he said.
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The storm system is expected to move eastward, where people are already dealing with air traffic delays and power outages brought on by snowfall earlier this week.

"This is essentially the reincarnation of the same storm that brought the heavy snow to parts of California, southern Nevada and northern Arizona," Steve Corfidi, lead forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, told CNNRadio

CNN NEWS

Ripples of Madoff scandal spread everywhere

Ripples of Madoff scandal spread everywhere
Wall Street wizard accused of swindling $50 billion in Ponzi scheme
Image: Bernard Madoff
Jason Decrow / AP
Bernard Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities, is accused of defrauding investors of up to $50 billion. The losses have hammered institutions and individuals around the world.

NEW YORK - In the nonprofit legal center Steven Schwartz runs from a converted furniture store in Northampton, Mass., the e-mail was very good news: By week's end, a check for $243,000 would be on its way.

The money couldn't come soon enough. The sharp downturn in the economy had put Schwartz's group — working to improve treatment of teen offenders with mental illnesses — under very tight budget pressure. At least the check was a promise he could count on.

By that Thursday, though, events were unfolding 160 miles away that would upend those assumptions and assurances. In a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, a Wall Street wizard stood before a judge, charged with running a $50 billion fraud that targeted scores of wealthy and powerful investors.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

The name of the accused, Bernard L. Madoff, meant nothing to Schwartz and why should it? He'd never heard of the money manager with the beachfront mansion and the 55-foot yacht. They'd certainly never met. There was no reason to think they had anything in common.

Except, it turned out, the money.

In the days since Madoff's Dec. 11 arrest, the tale has repeatedly been told of wealthy victims who, perhaps naively, invested their trust in a man who promised financial miracles.

But the scale of the Madoff scandal can just as well be measured in its still-widening ripples, reaching far-flung people and causes — from a group helping just-released inmates find jobs in Rhode Island to another working to provide fresh food in poor neighborhoods in Detroit and Oakland, Calif.

Their future is now in jeopardy — a painful reminder of the financial web linking very different worlds.

'My father believed in Bernie'
Signing up companies for office space in Manhattan skyscrapers made Norman F. Levy a very rich man.

In the hotly competitive but tight-knit world of New York commercial real estate, Levy worked across more than seven decades brokering leases in midtown's towers. When he died in 2005 at 93, he was hailed as an elder statesman of the trade whose zest for the deal was matched by his generosity with both friendship and money.

"Your spirit and love of life have touched and changed all who knew you," one friend of 40 years wrote in a paid death notice for Levy that ran in The New York Times. "You taught me so much. I'll cherish our relationship forever."

The friend was Bernard Madoff.

The real estate broker and the money manager were separated by 26 years, but they and their families had formed a friendship reinforced by shared interests, social circles — and trust.

Levy and Madoff were active in some of the same organizations, like New York's Yeshiva University. They donated their money to many of the same causes — groups including the Lincoln Center Theater and Gift of Life, a South Florida charity that tries to save Jewish leukemia victims by matching them with bone marrow donors.

In the summer, both families headed to the Hamptons. When Norman F. Levy died, he was staying at his daughter's house fronting the Atlantic in Montauk, just a few sprawling lots away from the mansion owned by the Madoffs.

Click for related content
Foundation to shut down, blames Madoff
Read more from the Madoff case

For more than 30 years, the Levys also entrusted their personal investments to Madoff. When they chartered the Betty and Norman F. Levy Foundation — which reported assets last year of $244.4 million — as the vehicle for their charitable giving, they again put their trust in their longtime friend.

"My father believed in Bernie Madoff," Norman Levy's son, Francis — who declined to comment for this article — said in a recent interview with FOX Business News. "The one thing he said about Bernie (was), If there's one honorable person, it's Bernie'."

Helping the less fortunate
Francis Levy, a novelist, and his sister, Jeanne Levy Church, had no reason to think otherwise.

When Norman Levy died, they took the helm of the family philanthropy, leaving the funds invested with Madoff, whose offices were housed in the same Third Avenue tower as the foundation.

The Levy Foundation continued donations to longtime favorite charities. But its biggest checks went to a new set of organizations created by Norman Levy's children to champion causes they embraced.

In 2000, Jeanne set up the JEHT Foundation, whose name is an acronym for Justice, Equality, Human dignity and Tolerance — originally to work on criminal justice reform, an area where funds are scarce. Last year, the Levy family financed JEHT to the tune of $29.9 million.

Levy Church, and her husband, Kenneth, "felt that they were fortunate in their life to have this remarkable amount of money and they felt they wanted to use it for less fortunate people," said Robert Crane, president of the JEHT Foundation.

Francis Levy co-founded the Philoctetes Center, a group dedicated to fostering discussions of everything from literature to economics. In 2007, the Levy Foundation financed Philoctetes with $950,000. Last year, Francis Levy invited his family's longtime friend, Madoff, to appear on a panel at the center to talk about the workings of Wall Street.

More recently, the Levy Churches formed another group, the Fair Food Foundation, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., which set out to find ways to get fresher, healthy food to residents of poor city neighborhoods starting with Detroit and Oakland, Calif.

None of the Levys' foundations are well-known to the general public. But they got an enthusiastic reception from groups across the country that were hungry for funding.

Continue reading here

Cancer from cell phone use in cars

Cancer from cell phone use in cars

The Belgian Foundation Against Cancer warns that intensive use of a mobile phone can increase the risk of contracting cancer in certain situations.

The Belgian Cancer Foundation has picked up on the concerns of the World Health Organisation regarding mobile phones. “The first results of an international interphone study are quite alarming,” writes the Foundation on its website. Although the results of the study are not yet definitive the Foundation says there is definitely reason for concern.

To limit the risk of exposing yourself to an increased chance of contracting cancer the Belgian Cancer Foundation gives a number of tips including: children younger than 12 should not use a mobile phone; using a mobile phone as an alarm clock is not desirable because the phone is in close proximity to the head the entire night.

The Cancer Foundation also strongly advises people not to use a mobile phone in the car or train because the intensity of the signal from the antenna masts is stronger.

This is the first time the Belgian Foundation Against Cancer has openly advising people of the danger of using mobile telephones.

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