Sri Lanka – Features

After the gold rush
John Gray

The spree is over, the global economy is in ruins and our political masters are in disarray. Make no mistake, writes John Gray, the neoliberal era is over – but at what cost?

 
Meltdown: the End of the
Age of Greed
Paul Mason
Verso, 208pp, £7.99

One of the more entertaining ironies of the global financial crisis is the United States government demanding that the rest of the world follow its lead in implementing radical Keynes­ian policies. It is not just that after the36of the past months few people take American pretensions to financial leadership seriously any longer. More to the point, no Keynesian policies of any kind had a place in the economic orthodoxy – the deservedly forgotten “Washington consensus” – that US officials preached to the world, and imposed on various countries through the IMF and the World Bank, during the decades that preceded the outbreak of the crisis. Then, sound money and balanced budgets were the touchstones of economic virtue – not, of course, for the US, which has always displayed a fine disregard for these neoliberal dogmas in its own case, but for everyone else, and most particularly for the world’s poor countries.

Read More »After the gold rush

Picture: REUTERS/Darren Staples (BRITAIN)
A market stall owner presents his fruit in Leicester, central England August 12, 2008.

A study by a Japanese medical team says men who eat more fruit and vegetables have less risk of developing a type of cancer of the esophagus.

The study spearheaded by Japan’s health ministry monitored some 39,000 men aged 45 to 74 over about eight years, during which time 116 developed the type of cancer called esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Esophageal SCC is a common type of cancer among Japanese men, strongly linked to smoking and drinking alcohol.

The study divided men into three groups and found that those who ate the most fruit and vegetables had nearly half the risk of developing esophageal SCC compared with the group with the least vegetable-based diet.

The researchers say "An increase in consumption of total fruit and vegetables by 100 grams per day was associated with an 11 percent decrease in the incidence of esophageal SCC".

The study concluded that vegetables, especially the so-called cruciferous family of vegetables that includes radishes and cabbages, may help prevent esophageal SCC.

It says A diet rich in fruit and vegetables would lower the risk of developing this type of cancer to nearly one-third, even among men who smoke and drink.

A scientific study at Britain’s Institute of Food Research showed last month that men who ate more broccoli, one of the cruciferous vegetables, reduced their risk of prostate cancer and other chronic diseases.

MRN-AFP

Read More »Japan study fruit veggies lower mens cancer risk