(NaturalNews) By now most of us know that buying organic is absolutely essential if we want to put the best food possible into our bodies. It is just plain and simply better for our health and better for the environment, which are inextricably linked anyway.s
Study after study show that organic food has a higher nutritional content than conventionally raised food. A study published in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, for example, found that organic foods are more likely to help you fight cancer. And another study found that rats that ate organic food had far better health compared to rats on non organic food, including:
* Improved immune system
* Better sleeping habits
* Less weight and were slimmer than rats fed other diets
* Higher vitamin E content in their blood (for organically fed rats)
But then there is the common argument that organic food is more expensive. Of course to me the best investment that any of us can possibly make is in our health and wellbeing since without our health we can't optimally do all of the other things that we want to do in our life. Who cares about a financial investment in the stock market if you won't feel good enough to enjoy it?
Okay, but I will be realistic for a minute. Sometimes organic food is just crazy expensive, and to buy every single item organic is just not possible. Fortunately, new studies show that some foods are less affected by pesticides and herbicides than others.
The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies that protect global and individual health. They currently tested 43 different fruits and vegetables, and found that these 12 carried the least amount of pesticides when grown conventionally.
* Broccoli
* Eggplant
* Cabbage
* Banana
* Kiwi
* Asparagus
* Sweet peas (frozen)
* Mango
* Pineapple
* Sweet corn (frozen)
* Avocado
* Onion
Of the 43 different fruits and vegetables tested, the following 12 carried the highest amount of pesticides when grown conventionally, and are therefore the most important to buy organic.
* Peaches
* Apples
* Sweet bell peppers
* Celery
* Nectarines
* Strawberries
* Cherries
* Lettuce
* Grapes (imported)
* Pears
* Spinach
* Potatoes
So there you have it... if you aren't going to go 100% organic so that you can save a few pennies, you now know which fruits and vegetables to make absolute sure are organic, and which ones you can save a little on when necessary.
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Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Narcissists Tend to Become Leaders
Narcissists tend to be egotistical types who exaggerate their talents and abilities, and lack empathy for others.
Narcissists like to be in charge, so it stands to reason that a new study shows individuals who are overconfident about their abilities are most likely to step in as leaders, be they politicians or power brokers.
However, their initiative doesn’t mean they are the best leaders. The study also found narcissists don’t outperform others in leadership roles.
Narcissists tend to be egotistical types who exaggerate their talents and abilities, and lack empathy for others. The researchers stress that narcissism is not the same as high self-esteem.
“A person with high self-esteem is confident and charming, but they also have a caring component and they want to develop intimacy with others,” said lead researcher Amy Brunell, a psychologist at Ohio State University at Newark. “Narcissists have an inflated view of their talents and abilities and are all about themselves. They don’t care as much about others.”
She added, “It’s not surprising that narcissists become leaders. They like power, they are egotistical, and they are usually charming and extraverted. But the problem is, they don’t necessarily make better leaders.”
Born leaders?
The results, which will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, come from three studies, two with students and the other with business managers.
In one study, 432 undergraduate students completed surveys that measured various personality traits, including aspects of narcissism. Then, the students were put in groups of four and told to assume they were a committee of senior officers of the student union. Their task was to elect next year’s director.
Results showed that students who scored higher on one dimension of narcissism — the desire for power — were more likely to say they wanted to lead the group. The narcissists were also more likely to say they did lead the group discussion and more likely to be viewed as leaders by the other group members.
Another dimension of narcissism — the desire for attention — was not as strongly linked with leadership roles in the groups.
Shipwrecked island experiment
In a similar study, more than 400 students, placed into groups of four, were told to imagine they were shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. They had to choose 15 items from the ship that would best help them survive on the island.
Individuals who scored highest on the power dimension of narcissism again showed the most desire to lead the group discussion, rated themselves as leaders, and were viewed by other group members as the leaders.
To rate leadership abilities, the researchers compared the 15-item lists with one prepared by an expert who has taught survival skills to the U.S. military. Turned out, narcissists did no better than their less self-centered counterparts at choosing survival items.
A third study involved more than 150 business managers enrolled in an executive MBA program at a large southeastern university. The managers were grouped in fours and told to assume the role of a school board deciding how to allocate a large financial contribution from a fictional company.
Two trained observers monitored the group discussions, finding that the MBA students who rated highest in narcissism were most likely to emerge as group leaders. The results held even when other personality traits, such as self-esteem and extraversion, were taken into account.
Narcissists in society
Brunell said she believes the results apply to many parts of life, from the politics of presidential races to Wall Street.
“Many people have observed that it takes a narcissistic person to run for president of the United States,” Brunell said. “I would be surprised if any of the candidates who have run weren’t higher than average in narcissism.”
Wall Street traders could also have a high dose of narcissism, she suggested. “There have been a lot of studies that have found narcissistic leaders tend to have volatile and risky decision-making performance and can be ineffective and potentially destructive leaders.”
Brunell does hedge though, saying that not all troubles in Washington and Wall Street can be blamed on narcissists, and of course, you can’t boil everything down to personalities.
Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion so far
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months — about 20 percent of their value — Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday as lawmakers began investigating how turmoil in the financial industry is whittling away workers' nest eggs.
The upheaval that has engulfed financial firms and sent the stock market plummeting is also devastating people's savings, forcing families to hold off on major purchases and even delay retirement, Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Education and Labor Committee.
As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the meltdown, the panel pressed economists and other analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.
"Unlike Wall Street executives, America's families don't have a golden parachute to fall back on," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the panel chairman. "It's clear that their retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis."
More than half the people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll taken Sept. 27-30 said they worry they will have to work longer because the value of their retirement savings has declined.
Orszag indicated the fear is well-founded. Public and private pension funds and employees' private retirement savings accounts — like 401(k)'s — lost about 10 percent between the middle of 2007 and the middle of this year, and lost another 10 percent just in the past three months, he estimated.
Private retirement plans may have suffered slightly more because those holdings are more heavily skewed toward stocks, Orszag added.
"Some people will delay their retirement. In particular, those on the verge of retirement may decide they can no longer afford to retire and will continue working," Orszag said.
A new AARP study found that because of the economic downturn, one in five workers 45 and older has stopped putting money into a 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings account during the past year, and nearly one in four has increased the number of hours he works. More than one-third of these workers have considered delaying retirement, according to the study, which also found that more than half now find it difficult to pay for basic items such as food, gas and medicine.
The hearing came just as workers are receiving — or about to receive — their quarterly retirement savings account statements, which are likely to show disheartening drops in the value of holdings.
Jerry Bramlett, the head of BenefitStreet Inc., a retirement savings plan administration company, said there's a risk that people will overreact to the bad news by pulling their money out of the accounts, which could add to their potential losses.
"For participants with many years of retirement, a drastic abandonment of equity positions in their retirement account will only serve to lock in as-of-yet-unrealized losses. Markets do go up and down, and 401(k) participants must try to think long-term," Bramlett said.
Still, he said workers should do their best to diversify their retirement savings accounts and "perhaps consider less volatile investments."
On the heels of enacting a $700 billion market bailout, lawmakers are searching for ways to help workers who are feeling the ripple effects of the financial crisis.
"What should we be doing to try to find a way to salvage the retirement position of American workers?" said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, an opponent of the government rescue plan. Congress, he added, "rushed to protect Wall Street in hopes that some benefits would trickle down to workers."
The massive losses have already reopened a bitter and long-running debate about what role — if any — the government should play in helping workers save for retirement.
Some experts argue that the hefty tax subsidies that Congress has put in place in recent decades for 401(k) and other worker-contribution accounts have made people's retirement income less secure by shifting risks, decisions and costs from employers to people who often know little about investing.
"They are fatally flawed," Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School for Social Research, said of the tax-advantaged plans. "They're too risky, and it's not good policy to have workers run their own retirement plan. They want government help."
Common mistakes workers make include overinvesting in a single stock — often their company's — and participating in funds that carry large fees or involve excessive risk, the witnesses said.
"You cannot tell the participants at the bottom of your fund prospectus, 'Warning: Your psychology may lead you to make irrational choices,'" said Christian E. Weller of the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The current market turmoil adds to an already difficult retirement savings picture for Americans, who are increasingly shouldering the burden of managing and funding their own company-sponsored retirement savings plans as firms eliminate traditional pensions.
Even before the recent downturn, older Americans were on track to continue working longer. Twenty-nine percent of people in their late 60s were working in 2006, up from 18 percent in 1985, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the next decade, the number of workers who are 55 and older is expected to increase at more than five times the rate of the overall work force, the BLS reported.
Falling home values and now the decimation of much of their savings could plunge older Americans into period of austerity not seen in decades, Miller said: "The fear factor is huge, and they don't see the availability of resources to them to get well."
Orszag said the situation has little precedent in American history.
"The period that we're experiencing is arguably the greatest collapse in confidence that we've experienced since the Great Depression," he said.
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