... but in the interest of intellectual integrity I could not read it and not talk about it. Science Daily reports that the brains of the children of poor socio-economic status look like the brains of stroke victims: University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids. In a study recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity. Brain function was measured by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG) – basically, a cap fitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain – like that used to assess epilepsy, sl...

I don't think our grandparents had this problem--although they may have had it without knowing it. I am referring to the dramatic expansion of special dietary needs in today's world, and I'll use my family as an example of just how much fun it is to purchase and prepare (let alone budget for) food and meals that my entire family can eat. There are six of us. My wife and youngest daughter (the twelve-year-old sometime blogger) are both rebound hypoglycemics. They cannot have significant amounts of sugar in anything they eat (unless carefully matched against countervailing fat content). All baking recipes that require large amounts of sugar have to be modified with items like concentrated fruit juice (because neither of them can tolerate most chemical sugar substitutes like aspartame, either). My daughter needs to consume a significant amount of milk every day. They are the simplest people to feed. My older daughter is lactose intolerant and has problems digesting meat tha...