Tag: health

Health News

Cannabis (Pot) Now Legal In Canada

On October 17, the Cannabis Act came into force and cannabis became legal for adults in Canada. The recreational drug, also known as marijuana or pot, is often smoked like a cigarette.

It is still illegal to buy or use pot in the United States (except in rare cases such as for medicinal use).

Children may not legally buy or smoke pot; it is not healthy for bodies and brains that are still growing. It is also illegal for anyone under 18 years old to purchase cigarettes.

“Protecting the health and safety of youth is a top priority,” a Government of Canada website states. It notes that there are “serious criminal penalties for those who sell or provide cannabis to youth.”

Only adults, 19 years of age or older, may legally smoke pot. They can also legally buy it and grow marijuana (for their own use, not to sell).

News

Eating Healthy Can Lead To Better Grades: Studies

Four scientific studies, released last year, may help children make better choices about the food they eat. In one study, researchers from Ohio State University found that the amount of fast food children eat – things like burgers, fries and soft drinks – can affect how well they do in school. The researchers compared eating habits and test scores for more than 11,000 students across the United States. Grade five students were asked how often they ate fast food, and then they were tested on reading, math and science. The students were tested again in grade eight. The researchers found that students who had reported eating fast food four to seven times a week when they were in grade five performed worse on the grade eight tests than students who rarely ate fast food.

Health

How Much Food Do You Waste?

If all the food that’s thrown away in three American cities could be saved, it would provide 68 million meals for people who don’t have enough to eat, according to a recent study.

A team of researchers in the United States spent a week looking through the garbage bags of 1,151 people living in Denver, New York and Nashville. The researchers wanted to know what kind of food was being thrown away, how much there was, and why it was being tossed.

By asking these questions, the researchers hoped to find ways to reduce the amount of food we throw away, and to give some of that food to people who need it.

The researchers found that, in the cities they surveyed, more than a kilogram of edible food per person is wasted each week. (Edible food is food you can eat. It doesn’t include things like apple cores, egg shells, or bones from meat.)

Fruits and vegetables were the most common edible foods found in the trash, followed by food leftover from meals. Eggs, bread and milk were also commonly thrown out.

Kids News

“Adventure” Playgrounds Can Build Confidence

At a place called The Land, in Wrexham, Wales, the ground is littered with pieces of wood, old tires, packing crates, and shopping carts. It looks like a junkyard, but it isn’t. It’s a playground.
There’s also a fire pit, hammers and saws, and a rope swing across a creek. Some of the equipment can be dangerous, but the people who run the playground believe that letting children take some risks is good for them.
The Land was created by Claire Griffiths, who has two children of her own. She wanted to build a space where children could play the way they wanted and experiment with different things, without a lot of rules.

Health News Politics

Students March “For Our Lives”

Young people in more than 800 cities in the United States and around the world took to the streets last Saturday to protest.

It was called “The March for our Lives.” The students were protesting for “gun control” which in this case means they want stricter gun laws in the United States.

Canada’s gun laws are different than in the United States, in terms of when and how someone can buy a gun. Canada has “fairly strict gun laws,” according to a recent article in The Walrus magazine. Canada has “detailed licensing procedures, age restrictions, and background checks required before you can purchase a firearm.”

The students want politicians in the United States to make it harder for people to buy guns. They say that will make everyone safer.

Roberta Osuna on the pitcher's mound, about to throw. He's wearing a Blue Jays uniform.
News

Blue Jays Pitcher Back On The Mound

Roberto Osuna is a professional pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. But on Friday, June 23, when the Jays needed a pitcher to come in and help them win the game, Osuna didn’t pitch.
Osuna was the logical choice to come into the game; he is known as a closer, someone who comes in to pitch near the end of the game, to save it. The 22-year-old has saved games before–in fact, 18 of them this year.

Health News

Scientists Identify New Organ

Scientists have identified a new organ in the human body. It’s called the mesentery (pronounced mess’-en-tair-ee). An organ is a group of tissues that has a specific function in the body. Our bodies have 79 organs, including the heart, lungs, brain, skin and stomach. The mesentery is made of fatty tissue and is shaped a bit like a fan. It is attached to the back wall of the abdomen and it helps to support the intestines and hold them in place.

Health News Science

Researchers Pay People To Stay In Bed

Getting paid to stay in bed all day sounds pretty good. But what if someone offered you $23,000 to stay in bed for two months? That’s the deal that a medical research team in Toulouse, France, is offering to 24 volunteers.
Researchers at MEDES, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology, are looking for volunteers to help them study the effects of weightlessness on the human body by spending 60 days lying down. Lying in bed isn’t exactly the same as being weightless, but the effects on the human body are similar.