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A fracking operation outside Williston, North Dakota |
They loved the way the palm-fringed, Spanish-style home backed up to the fifth-hole fairway.
And they were taken with the three-bedroom's high ceilings and open plan.
Plus the neighborhood — with its power-washed driveways, blooming hibiscus and guarded gatehouse — seemed all "dressed up."
But when the Davidsons paid $255,385 in 2011 for the house on Birdie Drive, they didn't know that they had, in essence, bought only from the ground up, and that their homebuilder, D.R. Horton, had kept everything underneath.
"Wait a second, wait a second," Robert Davidson said after a reporter told him that a search of county records showed that D.R. Horton still owned the oil, natural gas, water and other natural resources beneath his and his neighbors' homes. "Let me sit down a minute here. They have the mineral rights to the land I'm on?"
In golf clubs, gated communities and other housing developments across the United States, tens of thousands of families like the Davidsons have in recent years moved into new homes where their developers or homebuilders, with little or no prior disclosure, kept all the underlying mineral rights for themselves, a Reuters review of county property records in 25 states shows. In dozens of cases, the buyers were in the dark.
The phenomenon is rooted in recent advances in extracting oil and gas from shale formations deep in the earth, fueling the biggest energy boom in modern U.S. history. Horizontal drilling and the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," have opened vast swaths of the continental United States to exploration.
Related: Earthquakes triggered by fracking?
As a result, homebuilders and developers have been increasingly — and quietly — hanging on to the mineral rights underneath their projects, pushing aside homeowners' interests to set themselves up for financial gain when energy companies come calling. This is happening in regions far beyond the traditional American oil patch, which has a long history of selling subsurface rights.
"All the smart developers are doing it," says Lance Astrella, a Denver lawyer who represents mineral-rights owners, including homebuilders, in deals with energy companies.
Among the smart ones are private firms like Oakwood Homes in Colorado, the Groce Companies in North Carolina, Wynne/Jackson in Texas, and Shea Homes, which builds coast to coast. Publicly traded companies that engage in the practice include the Ryland Group, Pulte Homes and Beazer Homes, according to oil and gas attorneys and public land records.
D.R. Horton, the biggest U.S. homebuilder, is a heavy user of the practice. The Fort Worth, Texas, company has separated the mineral rights from tens of thousands of homes in states where shale plays are either well under way or possible, including North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Colorado, Washington and California. In Florida alone, the builder has kept the mineral rights underneath more than 10,000 lots, a review of county property records shows.
In most states, sellers aren't legally required to disclose to home buyers whether they are severing the mineral rights to a property. Builders sometimes flag the move in sales contracts or deeds and other documents they are required to file with local authorities. But buyers don't necessarily review their paperwork very closely, especially if, as real-estate agents say happens often, they don't hire a lawyer to help them with the transaction.
"This is a huge case of buyer beware," said Professor Lloyd Burton, professor of law and public policy at the University of Colorado Denver. "People who move into suburban areas are really clueless about this, and the states don't exactly go out of their way to let people know."
Related: Oil shortage succumbs to new technology
Multiple builders declined to respond to questions about severing minerals under lots. Pulte said of its mineral-rights business: "While not zero, it's immaterial in our history and is not typically a component of land acquisition transactions." Beazer Homes said its standard sales contract in the Dallas-Fort Worth area includes a clause that carves out mineral rights. The company said that it does not always retain those rights and that it is not in the business of leasing them out. It would not comment on whether it keeps mineral rights in other parts of the country.
Wynne/Jackson said that, as a developer, it wouldn't be in a position to disclose reserved mineral rights since it sells its lots to homebuilders long before a home buyer enters the picture.
Oakwood Homes, the Ryland Group and Shea Homes, all of which county records show have reserved mineral rights under housing developments, declined to comment. D.R. Horton also declined to comment.
Homeowners, once they find out they don't own the earth under their feet, are typically not pleased. Many worry about the potential health and environmental effects of fracking. Research has yet to resolve the fierce debate over whether the process leads to ground, air and drinking-water contamination.
Janet Damon lives in a Denver community where builder Oakwood Homes leased out the underlying mineral rights to Anadarko Energy. And though drilling has yet to occur, Damon says, the possibility alone "has caused so much anxiety for families living in this radius that people started having health issues, panic attacks, because they're so concerned about their kids and families." Anadarko said it has since assigned the lease to ConocoPhillips as a part of a larger transaction. ConocoPhillips confirmed that it holds the lease.
Others homeowners are angry that they cannot exploit for financial benefit something they thought they owned. Richard Goodrich, another Valencia Golf and Country Club homeowner in Naples, noticed D.R. Horton had severed his mineral rights while he was negotiating to buy his house in November 2011. He says he told the local sales rep that he wanted to keep the rights. "If somebody wanted the mineral rights, then obviously there was a value," says Goodrich, a retired transportation executive. He was rebuffed. "It wasn't negotiable. We either [gave up the minerals] or we didn't get the house."
Loss of mineral rights isn't the only hit homeowners take. Property-tax assessments don't take into account severed mineral rights. And "lenders may not be willing to extend mortgage loans on property that is subject to intensive gas extraction activities," according to a report last year by the North Carolina Department of Justice.
Wells Fargo, the nation's largest home lender, sometimes denies mortgages to homes encumbered by gas leases. And for the past year, Sovereign Bank has been including clauses in mortgages allowing it to declare borrowers in default if any part of the subsurface property has been "leased, assigned or otherwise transferred for use to extract minerals, oil or gas," according to a copy of the bank's mortgage addendum. If mineral rights are severed, "we would not move forward with financing a property," said a bank spokeswoman.
Insurance policies usually exclude damage from "industrial operations," and some companies are denying coverage altogether for homes where the mineral rights have been severed. Title insurance companies have been exempting anything to do with mineral rights from their policies, too.
In many countries, only monarchs and governments are entitled to pull resources out of the earth. The United States is one of the few places where private owners hold title to what's above and what's below the ground. A handful of oil-rich states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have a long tradition of split estates, whereby one party can own the surface rights, and another can own the subsurface rights.
Now, once-inaccessible stores of oil and gas — underneath bustling urban neighborhoods and tree-shaded suburbs in places like Denver and Los Angeles — are within reach. Homeowners in these "virgin locations" are often untutored in the nuances of property rights and unaware they may be sitting atop oil and gas deposits that could be worth thousands or even millions of dollars.
In North Carolina, a group of distraught homeowners contacted the state Attorney General's office last year after they discovered that they had signed away their mineral rights when they bought their homes — just as the state was about to open its doors to fracking. "Everybody started to panic, because we were part of the area where there was potentially going to be fracking," says Jay Mosesson, a homeowner in the Legend Oaks subdivision in Chapel Hill.
Mosesson says he didn't learn that D.R. Horton was keeping the mineral rights under his home until his closing. "It was kind of hard to get out of it at that point because we had waited months for the house to get built and we were moving out," he says. "Plus we would have had to give our deposit up. We couldn't say, 'Oh, we're not going to buy the home. We don't have mineral rights.' "
As part of an inquiry into the matter, the state Department of Justice sent a letter to D.R. Horton, on April 12, 2012, asking for "a description of all oral and written disclosures made to home buyers," as well as the forms to back them up. "Our feeling was that normally, when North Carolina consumers were buying homes, their expectation was that they were purchasing all the normal rights with the home — as well as the land," said state Deputy Attorney General Kevin Anderson.
D.R. Horton said in a statement it released at the time that it intended "for its home buyers to be fully aware that the mineral rights under their lot have been severed and retained." It said it instructed sales agents to disclose the reservations prior to signing a contract. It also said it disclosed them in the deed, title and sales contract. A copy of a sales contract, reviewed by Reuters, showed it has a clause giving D.R. Horton "all geothermal energy and resources" located "on, in or under the Lot."
D.R. Horton agreed to return the rights to 700 aggrieved homeowners, including Mosesson. It also said it would suspend the practice of reserving the rights until the state legislature implemented a regulatory framework for fracking, which North Carolina is expected to allow in 2014.
"No one is actually reading these real estate contracts," says James Smith, a real-estate agent with Charlotte-based Executive Sellers Realty. "A lot of homeowners didn't realize their rights were stripped out." He and other agents say the problem is compounded because home buyers often don't hire a lawyer to help them with their deals.
Publicly traded homebuilders aren't required to disclose details of their oil and gas income or activity until the business becomes "material," investor relations professionals say. A review of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings turned up no such disclosures, suggesting that the companies have yet to turn their retained holdings into profit centers by leasing to energy companies.
The potential is there. Selling or leasing mineral rights has become a multibillion-dollar U.S. industry. A typical drilling lease can generate bonuses for its owner worth thousands of dollars per acre and a share of production profits as high as 25 percent. In 2012 alone, energy companies paid out more than $20 billion in natural gas royalties, according to the National Association of Royalty Owners.
As drilling has moved into more densely populated areas, energy companies have typically sent teams of so-called land men to knock on homeowners' doors to try to persuade them to lease their mineral rights. Each lease can have different terms, depending on the negotiating skill of the homeowner. Now, by dealing with builders and developers, energy companies can lock up entire neighborhoods via a single lease.
"We thought about it, and thought it was probably better that the mineral rights not be in so many different pockets," says Van Groce Sr., founder of the Groce Companies, a homebuilder that is currently reserving mineral rights underneath homes in the Copper Ridge Subdivision in Sanford, N.C.
D.R. Horton deeds the mineral rights it retains to a subsidiary called DRH Energy. The deeds contain language barring the disturbance of the surface of the lot — to a depth of 30 feet — but allowing for "developing, drilling, producing, withdrawing, capturing, pumping, extracting, mining or transporting the minerals, resources and groundwater" under or around the property through "wells or other structures at surface locations situated outside the boundaries" of the property.
In most cases, D.R. Horton appears not to have inked many agreements with energy companies. However, county property records show that it has done at least four mineral-rights deals in the Fort Worth area, home to more than 1,675 oil wells. The most recent was in February, when D.R. Horton leased the mineral rights under the Fairways at Fossil Creek development to XTO Energy, county property records show. Terms weren't disclosed.
XTO Energy, a unit of ExxonMobil, said it has drilled in the area.
In February, chiropractor Mark Schreibman bought a new house for his family of four in the upscale Fox Run subdivision in Greeley, Colorado. Having once lived in a 300-square-foot bungalow, he saw the 3,600-square-foot adobe as a palace: two kitchens, five bedrooms, a three-car garage.
Schreibman thought he had considered every aspect of the purchase. "When I was sitting down at my closing, I mean, the last thing I was thinking was: 'Do I own my mineral rights?' " he says. "That was just a non-issue."
Two weeks later, a neighbor came to his door handing out leaflets: It was an invitation from an energy company in Greeley called Mineral Resources to attend a community gathering the next night.
Schreibman and about 65 neighbors gathered at the Family Funplex, where officials from Mineral Resources told them that the company was about to begin drilling under their neighborhood — and that it was putting 22 well heads right across the street. (The number has since been reduced to about 16.) The officials assured residents that they would have a say in choosing the shrubs and trees to be planted to conceal the drilling operation and minimize noise.
Unbeknownst to the residents, many of whom had missed the mention of the mineral-rights disclosure on their deeds, the developer had spun off the rights and leased them to Mineral Resources. They say they don't remember hearing anything about it when they bought their houses.
"We were shell-shocked," says Schreibman, who is now running for city council. "No one ever thought they would frack here — for any reason."
The residents quickly mobilized, hiring a lawyer and filing an appeal with the city of Greeley. With 425 wells that lie within city limits, Greeley has become a drilling town. But the residents argued that such a sprawling operation, so close to a residential neighborhood, was unprecedented, and that the possible health risks were too great. They also said that they were blindsided by the proposal, that they would never be able to sell their homes once drilling started, and that they feared the consequences of an accident, explosion or flood.
At a packed hearing last spring, the city rejected the appeal, seven to zero, on the grounds that the plan met the criteria under local land-use laws. "The city is committed to continuing to work with the community to find the right balance of land uses," says Brad Mueller, Greeley's director of community development. "It's a balance between competing values."
Since the drilling plan came to light, two neighbors have sold their homes. Two more have put theirs on the market; one just cut the price by $50,000.
Mineral Resources Chief Executive Officer Arlo Richardson said he wasn't sure when the drilling would begin. "We appreciate and recognize their concerns," he said. "But it doesn't change what the state of Colorado allows us to do."
Fox Run developer Mike Donaldson did not respond to requests for comment.
Split estate laws emerged more than 100 years ago, long before any energy company had the ability to drill horizontally for miles. That's why mineral-rights owners in many places can now extract hydrocarbons from beneath a property even if doing so is against the will of the homeowner.
State laws are at best murky on what sellers must tell buyers about mineral rights. A bill expected to be introduced in 2014 in Colorado would require sellers to disclose mineral-rights ownership to buyers before a sale. But for now, all that exists is two sentences in the standard sales contract underneath a section called "Title Advisory," warning the buyer of the possibility that mineral or water rights may have been transferred.
The disposition of mineral rights is rarely explained to buyers before or during closings, real estate professionals say, and title searches don't always pick up the information, either. Many states also don't require home buyers to have their own lawyer present at closings.
"We were surprised to find that a lot of the laws in other states didn't seem to approach the issue from a consumer protection standpoint," said Deputy Attorney General Anderson in North Carolina, which enacted a law requiring a separate written disclosure about mineral rights for home buyers. "To a large extent, there weren't always good models for us to look at."
Real-estate agents say many buyers miss any notifications buried in the multipage sales contracts they sign. And even though builders and developers sometimes file mineral deeds with county registrars, homeowners may not know to sleuth through county property records to find that information. Title insurance policies may disclose the reservations, but buyers often miss those, too.
In 2008, drillers moved into the Bossier Parish, La., area and started to pen leases worth thousands of dollars. In the Golden Meadows development — a quiet community of no-frills, one-story brick homes — energy companies filled residents' mailboxes and dropped flyers on their doorsteps.
Charles Richard Casares was in the middle of negotiating a deal to lease his own mineral rights when an energy company representative informed him that he didn't own them. The builder of his home, James M. Brown Builder, did. Before selling Casares his house in 2006, the company had transferred the rights to company officers and their wives. It had also allegedly inked leasing deals with two energy companies.
Casares and six other residents filed suit against James M. Brown Builder in Louisiana District Court, alleging their deeds made no mention of the mineral-rights reservations. "It was the principle of the thing, is what made me mad," says Casares. "The way they did me."
In 2011, after gas prices crashed, the lawsuit was settled confidentially.
Doug Brown, president of James M. Brown Builder, declined to comment, citing the confidentiality agreement.
Severed rights are usually not factored into tax assessments. Thus homeowners who don't own their mineral rights often end up paying just as much in property taxes as those who do — even though their properties are worth less. Owners of severed mineral rights pay no property taxes at all. Only when minerals are extracted from the ground are they usually taxed, according to Jerry Simmons, the executive director of the National Association of Royalty Owners.
Appraisers and tax assessors rarely ask about mineral rights when they assess properties, especially in states with little experience of oil and gas drilling, says John S. Baen, a professor of real estate at the University of North Texas, who has studied the impact of drilling on property values. "The tax offices have no clue what to do," he says. "They don't understand it at all."
Davidson didn't have his own lawyer present at the closing for his house in Naples, Florida. The Vietnam War veteran, who runs a hearing-aid company, says he doesn't remember hearing or reading anything about mineral rights at his closing. Nor did he do his own search of local property records at the Collier County Recorder of Deeds.
If he had, he would have found out that, four years before he bought his house, D.R. Horton filed a mineral deed granting its DRH Energy subsidiary the right to exploit whatever resources it could underneath Davidson's house.
In September, local authorities approved a plan for Dan A. Hughes Co of Texas to begin drilling near Golden Gate Estates, a neighborhood 10 minutes from Davidson's home. It's the first time south Florida has allowed horizontal drilling so close to a residential area. Neighbors there received a letter last April from an emergency preparedness company called Total Safety, requesting household information for a hydrogen sulfide contingency plan should the area need to be evacuated due to an explosion or leak. Dan A. Hughes Co declined to comment.
Davidson worries that if the project is successful, oil and gas operators will pounce on more mineral-rights leases in suburban Naples, including under his home.
He says he also "would have a problem with them generating income off of something which theoretically I should own." Davidson, who is the secretary of the board of the Valencia Club development, says he and the rest of the club's board plan to contact their lawyer about the mineral rights under their homes and add the issue to the list of grievances they have with D.R. Horton, from unpaid homeowner dues to cul-de-sacs lacking sufficient drainage.
Recently, Davidson unpacked a stuffed plastic file folder that contains all of his house paperwork. He pored over every page. In the title to his home — provided by D.R. Horton's in-house title company — he found minerals mentioned between information about easements and tax parcel numbers. It read: "minerals, resources and groundwater (with rights of egress and ingress, springing surface waiver) in favor of DRH Energy."


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August 23, 2012
Five doctoral students win financial backing for promising research
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
Five Kansas State University doctoral graduate students were awarded Kansas State University Research Foundation doctoral research scholarships for projects that could improve industry and human and animal health.
Recipients of the 2012 Kansas State University Research Foundation doctoral research scholarship are Evan Patrick Hurley, chemistry, Bomoseen, Vt.; Steven Arnold Klankowski, chemistry, La Crescent, Minn.; Yanjie Bai, grain science and industry, China; Qian Wang, anatomy and physiology, China; and Sivasai Balivada anatomy and physiology, India -- all doctoral candidates.
Each student received a $15,000 stipend and as much as an additional $5,000 for tuition reimbursement. Students were chosen based on academic performance, publications, presentations and the potential for intellectual property or commercial application from their research. The scholarship helps graduate student researchers with tuition so they can focus more on their project rather than securing funding through a part-time job.
Additionally, the scholarship spotlights one of the opportunities in the K-State graduate program and is meant to encourage new directions in research -- a key component to the vision of K-State becoming a top 50 public research university by 2025.
"The five graduate students chosen this year are a great representation of the innovative and diverse research opportunities available to students at the university," said Marcia Molina, vice president of the Kansas State University Research Foundation, or KSURF. The foundation is a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing technology transfer activities at the university.
The students' research is as follows:
* Hurley is looking at the basic interactions between molecules to understand how they recognize and communicate with each other. He compared it to molecular dating -- understanding how and why molecules pair up with particular partners will enable the design of materials with predictable structural landscapes.
"Molecules are inherently selfish; they don't really like to partner with others that aren't like them," Hurley said. "If we can break that trend and manipulate them in such a way that they will pair up with others in a predictable and controllable manner, this may result in improved physical properties and the materials may be easier to handle, store, pack into a tablet or improve bioavailability. As such, the result has numerous applications, especially in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries where the physical properties of a substance are directly related to how the molecules arrange themselves."
Hurley's major adviser is Christer Aakeroy, professor of chemistry.
* Klankowski is developing high-performance nanostructured electrode materials for future lithium-ion batteries. The electrode provides 10 times the energy storage capacity of the current carbon-based electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries. As a result, batteries used in electric cars, laptops and other electronic devices can last longer.
"Demand for portable electrical energy is increasing substantially and we will need batteries that have the performance to store and deliver large amounts of energy both quickly and effectively," Klankowski said. "With the progress we are seeing, I hope one day to drive from Manhattan to my folk's house in Minnesota on a single battery charge."
Klankowski's major adviser is Jun Li, professor of chemistry.
* Bai is looking at an improved method to develop octenylsuccinic anhydride modified starch, or OS starch. The starch is used as an emulsifier in the food and beverage industry and is currently prepared through a complex process. A patent application has been filed for the technology.
"This new technology has been developed to prepare octenylsuccinic anhydride-modified starch in the industry in a cost effective manner that significantly simplifies the process and manufacturing equipment," Bai said. "The new technology introduces a hydrophobic group on starch, degrades starch and makes starch soluble in one step."
Bai's major adviser is Yong-Cheng Shi, professor of grains science and industry.
* Wang is studying the transport and regulation of salt in human mammary gland cells by a protein channel. She has found a toxin that elevates the sodium absorption and retention in the outer membrane of mammary cells. Findings may lead to improving the health of dysfunctional mammary glands as well as other tissues in the body affected by salt transport.
"My research is exciting because it identifies mechanisms that can treat or prevent mastitis, a disease that affects 10 percent of women and is the most costly disease in the dairy industry," Wang said.
Wang's major adviser is Bruce Schultz, professor of anatomy and physiology.
* Balivada's research focuses on using a temperature-based treatment to kill metastatic tumors. Currently, metastatic tumors are difficult to target with therapeutic agents. His research uses magnetic nanoparticle-loaded cells that can travel to metastatic tumors. When the tumors are exposed to an alternating magnetic field, the magnetic field causes the nanoparticles to vibrate and increase in temperature. This heat generation can kill the tumor cells.
"This exposure will cause specific temperature increases and will decrease the tumor burden," Balivada said.
Balivada's major adviser is Deryl Troyer, professor of anatomy and physiology.

subset: commoncrawl


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Top 10: Beach Cities
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Find more of summer's top babes, fashion and destinations at our Sun, Sex & Style microsite Proximity to water is the main factor when considering building a settlement, which is why there are hundreds of major cities across the world built next to stretches of glorious beach and glittering ocean. So, as summer approaches, we track down some of the world's best beachside cities (which we've narrowed down to settlements of more than 100,00 people), whose sandy fringes act as an integral part of their structure, atmosphere and overall identities. So slap on that sunblock, slide on those shades and head to one of our top 10 beach cities.
Number 10
Venice, Italy
Body of water the city borders: Adriatic SeaPopulation: Around 271,251
Average temperature in the winter: 40°F
Average temperature in the summer: 73°F
Built on water, Venice was destined to rank as one of our top 10 beach cities. Its beaches are often overlooked, however, given the meandering canals, gondola rides and stunning architecture that take up most of visitors' precious time. When they get past those attractions, they'll find that the romantic Italian city is actually home to some of the most hush-hush beaches in Europe, where nature and history collide.
Best beach: Venice Lido is one of the world's best-kept secrets, and is only 10 minutes away from the throngs of tourists that congregate around St. Mark's Square. An 11-mile island that stretches between the open sea and a lagoon, the sands of Venice Lido play host to some of the most stylish Italians off the catwalk. Excelsior and Des Bains are Lido's best private beaches (belonging to hotels), but there are two public beaches to be found on either end of the white sandbar if you're too cheap to check in.
Number 9
Mumbai, India
Body of water the city borders: Arabian SeaPopulation: Around 13,662,885
Average temperature in the winter: 75°F
Average temperature in the summer: 85°F
Mumbai is the financial, commercial, industrial, and celluloid capital of India, and it's where Bollywood dreams are made. Built from the ground up on its colonial foundations, Mumbai is one part glitz, with flashy skyscrapers and designer stores, and one part poverty, with slums and seedy neighborhoods. Built next to the Arabian Sea, another one of Mumbai's points of interest is, of course, the beach. Juhu Beach, which sits just outside of the city center, is lined with Mumbai's best hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, and it's where the business bunch like to come and play. Mumbai's deep-water port is also an essential component of the beachside city, managing over half of India's maritime cargo.
Best beach: Fringed by Marina Drive on the western side of the city, Chowpatty Beach is Mumbai's most charismatic beach. There are donkey rides, stalls selling bhelpuri (a savory snack favored in the region) and a huge man-powered Ferris wheel to be ridden. When the sun sets behind the Arabian Sea, Chowpatty Beach turns into a carnivalesque scene with astrology readings, plays, monkey shows, and yoga demonstrations happening right on the sand. The beach also doubles as the venue for the annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival, during which giant statues of the elephant god are thrown into the sea. This is beach-going India-style, and there are no apparent rules or regulations.
Number 8
Sydney, Australia
Body of water the city borders: Pacific OceanPopulation: 4,284,379
Average temperature in the winter: 54°F
Average temperature in the summer: 73°F
Although many people still think that Sydney is the capital of Australia, it isn't — that would be Canberra. Sydney is, however, no less important to Australia's success as a travel destination; in fact, more people seem to visit it than the country's actual capital, which doesn't seem fair. Nevertheless, with showstopping architecture, such as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (incidentally, both by the water), a vibrant nightlife scene, and more natural beauty than in the rest of the world's cities put together, it's not hard to see why Sydney is the beating heart of modern-day Australia (as well as one of the world's top 10 beach cities). As the country's biggest metropolis, there's much to see and do, but one of the biggest draws is undoubtedly the beaches that lie just behind the clutter of the city's glass-fronted buildings.
Best beach: A magnet for those who love the combination of beach and city life, Bondi Beach is the most photographed stretch of sand in Australia (and Australia's one hell of a big country!). Famed for its excellent surfing conditions, Bondi is long, well-kept and full of gorgeous people taking to their boards and riding the waves.
More of the top 10 beach cities...


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Untold numbers of Haitians are dead, trapped in rubble or missing after the country's worst earthquake in two centuries. The international community is rushing to provide emergency aid for the impoverished Caribbean nation, where as many as three million people are believed to have been affected by Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude temblor that struck outside the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haiti's streets have become impromptu morgues, with grief-stricken survivors lining roads with bodies even as trapped survivors continue to scream for help.
Frank Thorp, the husband of an American aid worker in Haiti, described the scene on NBC television's Today program.
"There are dead people," said Frank Thorp. "There are people dying on the streets. There are injured on the streets. There are so many people here that need help."
The national palace, Port-au-Prince's main hospital, and the headquarters of the U.N. mission in Haiti are among the thousands of structures that collapsed - inflicting a death toll that could take weeks to compile. Scores of U.N. personnel are unaccounted for.
Nadeje Pamphile, who lives on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, spoke with VOA by telephone.
"In my house, the walls are cracked," she said. "Thankfully, my immediate family is okay, but my grandmother's house collapsed, and a brother and a nephew are under the rubble. They are trapped. We can hear their voices, but we cannot reach them yet."
Nations around the world are sending aid and rescue teams to Haiti. President Barack Obama pledged the "full support" of the United States to the people of Haiti, and directed his administration to deliver aid as rapidly as possible. The Pentagon says ships, helicopters, transport planes and thousands of U.S. troops are being readied for an emergency mission to provide relief and security in earthquake-ravaged areas.
Tens of millions of dollars in aid have been promised by the United Nations and a vast array of international groups, along with dozens of nations.
Already, emergency response teams are en route to Haiti from several locations, including Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Washington.
Fairfax County spokeswoman, Renee Stillwell:
"We have a doctor on the team, paramedics and firefighters that will be helping with rescue efforts when they get there and treat the wounded," said Renee Stillwell.
Special dogs are also part of the team.
"Cadaver dogs and search and rescue dogs," she said. "They are trained very differently, but the whole purpose is to find victims."
And time is of the essence if lives are to be saved, according to Paul Conneally of the International Red Cross.
"The first 48 hours [after a disaster] are extremely important because this is when people who are trapped under the rubble can hopefully be detected and rescued, and emergency attention given to the wounded so that the wounds they have incurred because of the earthquake do not become life threatening," said Paul Conneally.
Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, welcomed U.S. pledges of assistance.
"It [the quake] is a major catastrophe for Haiti," said Ambassador Joseph. "We have gone through others before. I am quite sure the Haitian people, courageous as they are, will come out of it in unity. In the meantime, I am asking for the international solidarity with Haiti now in our time of distress."
Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, ravaged by frequent hurricanes, centuries of political instability, chronic underdevelopment, and, until recently, one of the world's highest HIV infection rates.


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Show All Answers
However, from October through April of each year any combination of boats, campers, trailers, not exceeding two (2) may be parked in the side or rear yard of residential lots and not required to be on a hard surface.
If you wish to inquire as to whether a business has an occupation license, or if you need to obtain one, please call 402-331-4343 for further information. Additional Information
Above Ground Swimming Pool PermitA light remodeling and accessory permit application is required for review of an above ground swimming pool.The 2010-2011 above ground swimming pool permit is $30.00.
RequirementsA swimming pool permit is required for all pool with sides that 'stand' 2 feet high or more.Inflatable or water depth is not the determining factor.The side height of the pool determines the necessity of a permit, not the amount of water in the pool.
Pools must be located at least 5 (five) feet from the property line and 6(six) feet from any other structure (garage, shed, etc.).
Commercial projects generally need 3 sets of plans. The city will need to know the names of your mechanical, electrical, and plumbing sub-contractors.
New residential projects, and remodels, will need 2 sets of plans and will require the names of your mechanical, electrical, and plumbing sub-contractors.
Smaller projects such as decks, sheds, fences, pools, etc. will require two sets of plans which include at least a hand-drawn site plan showing your property lines and the distances any such project is from the property line and/or any other structure on the property. Additional Information
Primarily, before a home occupation permit will be issued, a minimum of 75% of the residents living within 200 feet of the proposed home occupation, shall sign a list prepared by the City, canvassed by the home owner, and indicate "no objections" in writing to the operation of a home occupation. Residents renting an apartment or home would follow a slightly different process. In some instances, a conditional use permit process would be necessary prior to initiating licensing for a home occupation.
A proposed in-home day care must submit a form signed by the State of Nebraska Fire Marshall, in addition to the process described above.
Call City Hall at 402-331-4343 for guidance prior to setting up any home base business within the La Vista City limits. Additional Information


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Local Dentist Lectures At Association Meeting
BERLIN – Area dentist William Allen, DDS MAGD recently returned from lecturing to the Missouri Dental Association at its annual meeting. Allen taught the Missouri dentists "Advanced Procedures in Cosmetic Dentistry", which focused on the newest techniques to create beautiful natural smiles with an emphasis on porcelain veneers.
Allen, pictured at right with Missouri Dental Association President Dr. Shanon Kirchhoff, DDS MS, early in his career decided to study and teach advanced techniques in dentistry and to incorporate the latest advances into his and his students dental practices. He serves as a mentor and teacher to many other dentists pursuing excellence in dentistry.
In addition to teaching, Allen has a private practice located at 13901 Coastal Highway in Ocean City. He has been published in General Dentistry, the Journal of the Academy of General Dentistry. Allen was honored in 2006 and again last year by Maryland State Senate for his achievements in clinical dentistry. In 2004, he was awarded a Mastership in the Academy of General Dentistry (MAGD), an honor designated to less than 1,400 dentists worldwide.
For a free consultation with Allen, call 410-250-1559.
Panera Opens In WOC
WEST OCEAN CITY – For those who are looking for coffee, sustenance and free wireless Internet in West Ocean City, your prayers have been answered with the opening of Panera.
Panera Bread is a cafe chain that is part restaurant, part coffeehouse, and part bakery. The new White Marlin Mall Panera is on Route 50 in West Ocean City and opened on Wednesday morning.
"What makes Panera different is that we bake our bread fresh every day and we think customers are looking for that high level of quality," said Amy Burke, a Neighborhood Marketing Coordinator [NMC] for Panera Bread. "We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and want to create an inviting environment where you can just enjoy a healthy meal. Our mission statement sums it up rather nicely – A Loaf of Bread in Every Arm."
The closest Panera location to Ocean City is in Salisbury. The restaurants in the greater Maryland area are franchised by one of the largest Panera Bread franchisees in the country, Lemek LLC. The group is headed by Brian Lemek and is headquartered in the Columbia, Md. area.
George Dixon is the regional manager overseeing the opening of the local Panera. The 96-seat bakery-cafe in Ocean City is the group's 37th location and Lemek plans to open nine more locations in the future for a final total of 46. A Panera for the town of Easton is already on the drawing board.
Realtor Earns Designation
OCEAN CITY – Skip Schlesinger, a Realtor with Re/Max Premier Properties in Ocean City, has earned the NAR Resort & Second Home Property Specialist designation.
This certification recognizes Realtors who demonstrate an expertise in working with clients buying, selling or managing properties for investment, development, retirement or second homes in a resort and/or vacation destination.
"The second home and investment market has never been stronger, and investors are demanding the expertise of a professional with proven knowledge of resort and second-home market conditions," Schlesinger said.
Top Producers
BETHANY BEACH – Seacoast Realty, a Carl M. Freeman Company, announced January's Top Producers for all eight Seacoast Realty locations at a recent Sales Meeting.
Robert Kauffman received top honors for listing volume for the month of January.
Karla Morgan of the Bayside office received the top honors in sales volume for the month of January
Colleen & Missy Team received top honors for listings volume for a team and sales volume for a team for the month of January.
Investing Class Offered
BERLIN – Old Dominion Investment Corporation (ODIC), along with the Ocean Pines Recreation & Parks department, will be offering a basic investing class entitled, "Running on Empty?" on Thursday, March 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Ocean Pines Community Hall.
The class will describe the relationship between time, savings and investing for retirement. In addition to retirement savings tips, the class will review basic investing terms and strategies.
Pre-registration is requested. Call 410-213-8513 to register.
AGH VP Becomes Fellow
BERLIN – James Brannon, FACHE, vice president of human resources at Atlantic General Hospital, recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), the nation's leading professional society for healthcare leaders.
Fellow status represents achievement of the highest standard of professional development. In fact, only 5,400 healthcare executives hold this distinction. To obtain Fellow status, candidates must fulfill multiple requirements, including passing a comprehensive examination, meeting academic and experiential criteria, earning continuing education credits and demonstrating professional/community involvement. Fellows are also committed to ongoing professional development and undergo recertification every three years.
Brannon is privileged to use the FACHE credential, which signifies board certification in healthcare management and ACHE Fellow status.
"ACHE is a premier professional society for healthcare managers, and I am very pleased to have been able to achieve the Fellow designation from such a prominent organization," said Brannon.


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The Opportunity to Testify
With … tender feelings of gratitude for all who have influenced my life in past years, I commit myself to the future.
My dear brothers and sisters, here in Salt Lake City and around the world, it is good to be with you. I extend my love and my greetings to Elder Bednar and Elder Robert Oaks in their new callings. To describe my inner feelings, I would say I am calm as a hurricane, or even better, I am happy and frightened. In one sentence, I need your prayers; I need the Lord.
Having received a call and been given a sacred trust that will completely influence my life forever, my feelings are tender and my emotions often close to tears.
I have a great sense of inadequacy, and I have felt a sweet agony from a deep and often painful examination of my soul during the many hours which have passed day and night since Friday morning this week.
After President Gordon B. Hinckley extended the call to me to become an Apostle and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, I left my busy office to share this totally unexpected news with my beloved Harriet. At this most important time in our lives, we have cherished the quiet sacredness of our home as a place of refuge and of defense. How grateful I am for my wife, for the loving comfort and strong support she has been throughout my life. Next to the gift of life itself and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, Harriet is the greatest blessing which has come into my life. I wish to express my deep love and appreciation to our children and our grandchildren for their prayers and love, but most of all for their example. Our children and grandchildren live in Germany and are building the kingdom of God in our homeland. The joys of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its eternal blessings bridge over the distance of many thousands of miles and bring happiness and comfort into our lives.
I express my gratitude and love to each member of our family and to a large number of friends and teachers along the way who teach and serve and lift to make us who we are.
I express my deepest feelings of love and gratitude to the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve for their love and kindness. In the closing of my stewardship as one of the seven Presidents of the Seventy, I want to express my love and admiration to the Seventy. They are truly especial witnesses of Christ. Instead of any others they are the men the Twelve call upon when they need assistance. I give thanks to those dedicated men who are giving so much of their time, talents, and spiritual power to build the kingdom. Words cannot describe how I love the 10 1/2 years I had the privilege and joy to serve as a Seventy. I will cherish the example and friendship of the members of the Quorums of the Seventy forever.
I want to thank each and every member of the Church throughout the world for your faithfulness despite temptations; for your love; for your dedication to the principles and doctrine of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ; for your willingness to follow the living prophet in making the wards and branches grow; for your sacrifices in giving of your time and energy and your emotional, spiritual, and temporal substance. Thank you for paying an honest tithing and not neglecting the poor and the lonely. I have seen the face of Christ in your faces, in your deeds, and in your exemplary lives. You are a modern miracle.
I thank you for sustaining, with your hand and with your heart, the general officers of the Church. Yesterday we sustained the general leadership of the Church according to the principle of common consent. Not one of these Church leaders is seeking such a position, nor are they declining such a call, because they know it comes by revelation from God.
We are grateful for your prayers, and we pray for you. We love you, and we need your love. We sustain you, and we need your willingness to serve the Lord wherever you are and to whatever position you are called. In the Lord's Church, every calling is important.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said: "We are here to assist our Father in His work and His glory, 'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39). Your obligation is as serious in your sphere of responsibility as is my obligation in my sphere" ("This Is the Work of the Master," Ensign, May 1995, 71). And the President asked us to reach out to others and bless the lives of those around us. He said: "Let there be cultivated an awareness in every member's heart of his own potential for bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. … Let him pray with great earnestness about it" ("Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep," Liahona, July 1999, 120; Ensign, May 1999, 106).
My life was eternally blessed by one choice member who reached out more than 50 years ago. Some days after World War II, my grandmother was standing in line for food when an elderly single sister with no family of her own invited her to sacrament meeting in Zwickau, East Germany. My grandmother and my parents accepted the invitation. They went to church, felt the Spirit, were uplifted by the kindness of the members, and were edified by the hymns of the Restoration. My grandmother, my parents, and my three siblings were all baptized. I had to wait two years because I was only six. How grateful I am for a spiritually sensitive grandmother, teachable parents, and a wise, white-haired, elderly single sister who had the sweet boldness to reach out and follow the Savior's example by inviting us to "come and see" (see John 1:39). Her name was Sister Ewig, which translates in English to "Sister Eternal." I will be eternally grateful for her love and example.
With these tender feelings of gratitude for all who have influenced my life in past years, I commit myself to the future. My heart and mind are filled with joy that for the rest of my life I will have the opportunity to "talk of Christ, … rejoice in Christ, … preach of Christ, [and] prophesy of Christ" (2 Ne. 25:26), all this as a special witness of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ (see D&C 107:23).
Realizing my weaknesses, I gain great comfort from the instructions given by the Lord. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read:
"The fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers. …
"And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed; …
"And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge" (D&C 1:23, 26, 28).
And in the Book of Mormon we read:
"I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments … save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" (1 Ne. 3:7).
And in the Old Testament we receive comfort:
"The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt … be turned into another man," "God gave him another heart," and "God is with thee" (1 Sam. 10:6, 9, 7).
I trust these wonderful promises. I therefore pledge to you, to these my Brethren, and to the Lord that I will live to be worthy to know the will of the Lord and to act accordingly.
God our Heavenly Father knows us by name. Jesus Christ lives; He is the Messiah; He loves us. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real; it brings immortality to all and opens the door to eternal life.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is again on the earth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and living.
The Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ and a manifestation of the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love the Prophet Joseph. I love President Gordon B. Hinckley, who is the prophet of God and holds all the keys of the kingdom at this time, keys which prophets have held in uninterrupted succession since Joseph Smith.
These things I know in my heart and in my mind. And of these things I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


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World Trade Center |
Painting of |
Good Resources on Freemasonry |
Over the centuries since 1717, when Freemasonry as it now exists, was born, many authors have written against this society, alleging that Freemasonry is a counterfeit Christian organization. Some authors have even gone to the extreme of alleging that Freemasonry is of the Antichrist. Many other authors hotly defended Freemasonry, contending that it is Christian, and that it upholds the Holy Bible and its teachings.
Who is true, and who is false?
Rather than relying upon the testimony of former Freemasonry members, we will go right to the source books themselves, published by Masonic Publishers. We will examine the writings of Freemasonry leaders like:
We will compare the Masonic teachings from the above authors with what the Holy Bible teaches. God has repeatedly taught that we must weigh what someone is telling us against the clear teachings of the Bible. The Apostle John, writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit, warned us in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
Therefore, we can let Freemasonry speak for itself, from its own writings, and test their teachings against the Holy Bible, to discover the truth once and for all.
Let us begin with the fundamental Truth on which we must all be agreed: Who is Jesus Christ? No one can hope to gain eternal life, in Heaven with God, if he does not believe in the True Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible. Jesus dogmatically said, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." [John 14:6]
Holy Bible Teaching:
Verse 14 identifies the "Word " of verses 1-2 as becoming human and dwelling among us. This is clearly Jesus Christ.
Thus, Jesus existed with God "in the beginning" which means before Time began. He is identical with God the Father, in all ways, and in all power and attributes. Jesus Himself made this claim, when He said, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me ..." [John 14:10], and again, "I and my Father are one." [John 10:30]
Jesus Christ, like God the Father, is existing in Eternity Past, Present, and Future. There never was a time when He did not exist, nor is there a time when He will cease to exist. Jesus equally shares God's attribute of never having been created. Jesus is not only not a created being, He created all things [John 1:3]
Now, let us consider Masonic teaching on Jesus Christ. I will be quoting from Albert Pike's monumental work, "Morals And Dogma of the Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry," considered by many to be the absolute authority of Freemasonry. Pike systematically enumerates the specific doctrines of Degrees 1-32.
What does Freemasonry believe about Jesus Christ?
Albert Pike states the following doctrine concerning Jesus Christ in Chapter 26, or the 26th Degree, "Prince Of Mercy, or Scottish Trinitarian". On page 562-3, we see that the thought of a Supreme Being unknown to the Human race [God] produced the Universe which "produced the Spirit, the Mother of the Living, and Wisdom of God. Together with this Primitive Existence, Matter existed also ... eternal ..."
"Buthos and His Thought, uniting with Wisdom, made her fruitful by the Divine Light, and she produced a perfect and an imperfect being, Christos, and a Second and inferior Wisdom, Sophia-Achamoth, who falling into chaos remained entangled there, became enfeebled, and lost all knowledge of the Superior Wisdom that gave her birth. Communicating movement to chaos, she produced Ialdaboath, the Demiourgos, Agent of Material Creation ... Ialdabaoath produced an angel that was his image, and this a second, and son on in succession to the sixth after the Demiourgos ... Ialdabaoath, to become independent of his mother, and to pass for the Supreme Being, made the world, and man in his own image; and his mother caused the Spiritual principle to pass from him into man so made; and henceforward the contest between the Demiourgos and his mother, between light and darkness, good and evil, was concentrated in man."
"And the image of Ialdabaoth, reflected upon matter, became the Serpent-Spirit, Satan, the Evil Intelligence. Eve, created by Ialdabaoth, had by his Sons children that were angels like themselves. The Spiritual light was withdrawn from man by Sophia, and the world surrendered to the influence of evil; until the Spirit, urged by the entreaties of Wisdom, induced the Supreme Being to send Christos to redeem it. Compelled, despite himself, by his Mother, Ialdabaoth caused the man Jesus to be born of a Virgin; and the Celestial Savior, uniting with his Sister, Wisdom, descended through the regions of the seven angels ... and entered with his sister into the man Jesus at the baptism in Jordan."
"Ialdabaoth, finding that Jesus was destroying his empire and abolishing his worship, caused the Jews to hate and crucify Him; before which happened, Christos and Wisdom had ascended to the celestial regions. They restored Jesus to life and gave Him an ethereal body, in which He remained eighteen months on earth, and receiving from Wisdom the perfect knowledge {... Gnosis}, communicated it to a small number of His apostles, and then arose to the intermediate region inhabited by Ialdabaoth, where, unknown to him, He sits at his right hand, taking from him the Souls of Light purified by Christos. When nothing of the spiritual world shall remain subject to Ialdabaoth, the redemption will be accomplished, and the end of the world, the completion of the return of Light into the Plenitude, will occur."
I have gone to the effort to reproduce virtually the entire text of these 11/2 pages, from the bottom of page 562 to the top of page 564, so you can get the full flavor of this text, and so that I cannot be accused of "taking out of context".
Let us now go back to p. 562, at the beginning. We find that:
It is difficult to list all the ways this Pagan teaching does damage to the Biblical account. During the above recounting of this teaching, I included some facts in parenthesis. But, I did not cover all the ground that needs to be covered concerning the blasphemy that this Masonic teaching does to Jesus Christ.
After reviewing these blasphemous teachings about Jesus Christ, I ask the question, "How can any knowledgeable Christian become a Mason?" Perhaps you are a Mason that has not been exposed to these teachings of the 26th Degree, and had no idea these teachings existed. But, now you know, and you will know much more in coming weeks; so, what are you going to do now? Are you going to stay a Mason?
I am drawn to Daniel 7:25, "And he [Antichrist] will speak great words against the Most High God ..." Are these Masonic teachings another example of Biblical Prophecy being fulfilled in these Last Days?


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I can't get over our reading today, and how accurate you were. I was so skeptical first coming in, and as soon as we started talking, I knew you were the real deal. Losing both of my parents at 20 years old has been a hard thing to deal with.
But. im so much more at peace with it now that you were able to connect with them for me, & I know they are always, always, ALWAYS with me no matter what, During good times, Bad times, Hard times, they are always there. I cant thank you enough !!!
– Amy O. West Palm Beach.


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By Denise Mann
MONDAY, April 12, 2010 (Health.com) — Women who eat more white bread, white rice, pizza, and other carbohydrate-rich foods that cause blood sugar to spike are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than women who eat less of those foods, a new study suggests.
Men who eat lots of those carbohydrates—which have what's known as a high glycemic index (GI)—do not have the same increased risk, however, perhaps because their bodies process the carbs differently, the researchers found.
Only carbohydrates with a high glycemic index appear to hurt the heart. Carbs with a low glycemic index—such as fruit and pasta—were not associated with an increased risk of heart disease, which suggests that the increased risk is caused "not by a diet high in carbohydrates, but by a diet rich in rapidly absorbed carbohydrates," says the lead author of the study, Sabina Sieri, PhD, of the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, a national institute for cancer research in Milan, Italy.
Related links:
The glycemic index ranks on a scale from 1 to 100 how quickly (or slowly) carbohydrates affect your blood-sugar levels. (White bread scores 100.) Foods that rank below 55 are considered to have a low glycemic index and produce only small fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels; foods that rank above 70 are said to have a high glycemic index and tend to cause unhealthy spikes in blood sugar.
In the study, published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Sieri and her colleagues analyzed data from a large, ongoing study of nutrition and cancer risk. The researchers surveyed roughly 48,000 Italian adults about their diets in detail, noting the amount and types of carbohydrates they consumed on a regular basis. (People with diabetes, who have abnormal levels of blood sugar and insulin, were excluded.) Not surprisingly—the study was conducted in Italy, after all—bread, pasta, and pizza were common sources of carbs.
During the eight-year follow-up period, 463 people in the study—65% of them men—experienced heart problems (including heart attacks), had angioplasty or bypass surgery, or died of heart-disease-related causes.
The women who reported eating the most carbohydrates had twice the risk of developing heart disease as their counterparts who consumed the fewest carbs.
When the researchers broke the carbs into high and low glycemic index categories, the increased risk was even more apparent: Women who ate the most high glycemic foods had about 2.25 times the risk of developing heart disease than women who consumed the fewest. (To isolate the effect of the carbs on heart health, the researchers took body weight, physical activity, saturated fat intake, smoking, and a range of other health factors into account.)
Next page: For men, a different story
Men, by contrast, were not at increased risk for heart disease regardless of how many—or what type of—carbs they consumed. Although the researchers aren't certain why this is, they suggest that it may be in part because carbohydrates with a high glycemic index lower HDL (or good cholesterol) and raise triglycerides less readily in men than they do in women.
Previous studies have shown a similar link between glycemic index and heart disease risk, and a similar discrepancy between men and women. "We hope to be able to repeat this analysis on…more than 500,000 subjects in order to confirm our results," Sieri says.
Joanna McMillan Price, PhD, a nutritionist in Sydney, Australia, and the author of The Low GI Diet, says that the new study provides yet more evidence to support a diet that favors low versus high glycemic index foods. "That means cutting out processed carbs and choosing instead minimally processed whole grains and low-GI starchy vegetables, fruits, and legumes," she says.
There are many benefits to limiting foods with a high glycemic index, Price adds. People who do so "will find their appetite easier to control, making weight control easier in turn," she says. "They will help to keep energy and mood steady over the day, and they reduce their risk of several chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers."
According to Price, the best low glycemic index foods are whole-grain breads, barley, quinoa, beans and chickpeas, low-fat dairy products, fruit, and sweet potatoes.


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North Aston Organics has been supplying freshly harvested vegetables to the Oxford area since 1997. We grow almost the entire range of vegetables ourselves, in our own fields, so that our customers can experience the pleasures of seasonal eating all the year round. Salads and other leafy crops are harvested on the day of delivery, ensuring they arrive in peak condition, crisp and fresh, and with the maximum possible shelf-life.
North Aston Organics is a Soil Association registered grower of organic vegetables and culinary herbs. Our crops are grown without artificial fertilisers or pesticides and are free from chemical residues.
North Aston is just south of Deddington in Oxfordshire, about half way between Oxford and Banbury. Our main vegetable fields overlook the Cherwell Valley, with a market garden sited right at the heart of the the village itself.
North Aston Organics is committed to supplying top quality organic vegetables, fruit and herbs. If you would like more details please Contact us by telephone or email.
Our organic vegetable box schemes offers many advantages over buying from supermarkets and nationwide box schemes:
Our box scheme is particularly user-friendly – you can:


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Berlin apartment - Berlin Apartment
MOWITANIA has all kinds of accommodation for your visit to the German capital on offer - from serviced holiday rentals to budget guest rooms either in the most central location or right in the heart of a friendly and unique neighborhood – with MOWITANIA it is easy and quick to find and book one of more than 1000 accommodations and private rooms.In 2020 we have been brokering property and holiday homes, business apartments and guest rooms in Berlin for 18 years.
We conveniently connect guests with hosts and are available to customers both by email and by phone.
We offer comfortable as well as spacious accommodation for one to 10 people or any large number really – fully equipped with kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom, two bedrooms or more, and oftentimes a convertible sofa bed in the living room sleeps another one or two guests.
If you are looking to book a holiday condo with a quiet garden and terrace or generally a larger place, you want to shift your perspective away from Berlin-Mitte and the city centre to the less centrally located districts - Berlin\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Most recent opinions for our apartments
Apartments in Berlin
Nice Apartment in Berlin Friedrichshain - Nr. 1534
The property is located on ground floor. In the accommodation should not be smoked. Public parking is available near the house. This accommodation has a highspeed / DSL - Internet connection. This accommodation is equipped with a washing machine. The accommodation is suitable for the disabled.
Through the family-friendly establishment is this accomodation ideal for families.
The apartment is quietly situated on the ground and is continuously available.
Accommodation Berlin City Centre - Nr. 7
Beautiful and charming 1-room appartment in the historical centre of Berlin - with french bed and nice, quiet balcony with wooden chairs and flowers. With wooden floor, cable-TV, DVD-player, a good and modernly equipped kitchen and a small, but luxurious bathroom. Elevator, parking available if needed. Here you will find a quiet place, although you are in the middle of a café-, restaurant-, and shopping area.
Vacation Apartment Berlin Prenzlauer Berg - Nr. 4310
Comfortable apartment in a very convenient location. The apartment is newly furnished and suitable for 6 persons. 2 double beds (160x200 cm) (180x200 cm), sofa bed (140x200 cm) and 2 single beds (90x200 cm). There is a TV in two bedrooms. The kitchen has a dining table, electric stove, refrigerator etc. The bathroom is equipped with a bathtub. The apartment is very suitable for families with its family-friendly features. Cribs, children's books and some toys are available.
Furnished Apartment Berlin Friedrichstrasse - Mitte - Nr. 3012
Apartment with separate kitchen and bathtub, calm, very light and a view over Berlin from the balcony of the 5th floor (with elevator). Sleeping room with double bed, living room with sofabed, LCD-TV, DVD, free wifi internet and radio. Fully equipped kitchen with coffee machine, toaster, kettle and oven. Bathroom with tub and shower, coin-operated laundry in the building.
Central located: Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Jewish Museum, Checkpoint Charlie and Galery Lafayette are in walking distance. Metro station U Kochstrasse is in front of the house. By metro you will reach popular Oranienstrasse in a few minutes.
complete Apartment berlin mitte - 7 person - Nr. 2989
The complete Apartment is offering WLAN DSL. The parking is for free, just ask for a parking permission at your arrival.
The place "Hackische Markt" is one of the most centralized cultural locations in Berlin with several high quality bars, clubs, restaurants and shops. From the apartment you will perfectly reach every sight seeing location (Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charly, etc.) by foot or within some minutes by metro or bus. The scene districts Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain ar all three reachabke within 5-10 minutes by Metro. The Apartment is perfectly located for a short trip with friends and family to Berlin.
recommendations for apartments and accommodations
apartment for 4 persons at the Viktoriapark - No. 995
The apartment is centrally located and with good transport connections. Busses and nightbusses take you to Kurfürstendamm and Tauentzienstraße (shopping mile) or to Berlin's happening districts Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Suburban and subway stations with direct connections to Potsdamer Platz, the Mitte district with the 'Museum Island' and Hackeschen Markt, can be reached on foot.


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WASHINGTON – Starting next year, the check will no longer be in the mail for millions of people who receive Social Security and other government benefits.
The federal government, which issues 73 million payments a month, is phasing out paper checks for all benefit programs, requiring people to get payments electronically, either through direct deposit or a debit card for those without a bank account.
The changes will affect people who get Social Security, veterans' benefits, railroad pensions and federal disability payments. Tax refunds are exempt, but the Internal Revenue Service encourages taxpayers to get refunds electronically by processing those refunds faster than paper checks.
About 90 percent of people who receive federal benefits already get their payments electronically, the Treasury Department says. New beneficiaries were required to get payments electronically starting last year, and with a few exceptions, the rest will have to make the switch by March 2013.
"It's just that natural progression of moving to how people are used to receiving their funds," said Walt Henderson, director of the Treasury Department's electronic funds transfer division.
Henderson said electronic payments are safer and more efficient than paper checks; in 2010, more than 540,000 federal benefit checks were reported lost or stolen. The switch will save the government about $120 million a year. Social Security will save $1 billion over the next decade, according to the Treasury Department.
"You think of that paper check floating out there in the delivery system, with personal information on it, it's much more susceptible to fraud versus an electronic payment," Henderson said.
Advocates for seniors say they understand the government's desire to cut costs and take advantage of technologies that most workers already use. The food stamp program switched from paper coupons to debit cards in 2004.
But they have raised concerns about requiring the switch for older retirees who may not be used to electronic payments.
"This will affect some very frail elderly people who are living by themselves, many of them, and doing well, but usually within the context of that old paper check that they deposit in the bank," said Web Phillips, a senior policy advisor for the National Committee to Protect Social Security and Medicare.
"The change has to be handled carefully and with a lot of sensitivity so that there aren't people who lose track of a payment or don't understand that they have a card that came in the mail that's the source of their payment," Phillips said. "That's our concern."
The switch is mandated by a Treasury rule issued in December 2010. Since then, the department has worked to educate the public. The government has created a website, www.GoDirect.org and a toll-free phone number, 1-800-333-1795, people can call for assistance.
"Treasury acknowledges they have a lot of education to do for people about how these things work," said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. "We're a bit concerned about how easy it's going to be to provide education, particularly for some in this older population who are not familiar with debit cards and don't have bank accounts."
Certner said AARP wants the government to make it easier to get an exemption. Under the Treasury rule, current beneficiaries who are 90 and older won't be required to make the switch. People can get a waiver if using a debit card would impose a hardship, but the Treasury Department says those would be "extreme, rare circumstances."
These waivers are not well publicized on the government's website.
"There are several million people who receive paper checks today," Certner said. "Some of them do it because they have worked out arrangements for them that work."
AARP also has concerns about fees associated with the debit cards. The Direct Express cards are issued by Comerica Bank, Treasury's financial agent. Each month, benefit payments are added to the cards, which can be used to make purchases or withdraw cash from ATMs.
There are no fees for using the debit card to make purchases. They can be used at any retailer that accepts MasterCard debit cards. If a card is lost or stolen, the beneficiary is protected from unauthorized use as long as the missing card is reported promptly.
Cardholders can make one free ATM withdrawal each time a payment is registered in the card. Subsequent withdrawals will cost 90 cents each, and all withdrawals may be subject to fees by the owner of the ATM.
The government's switch to electronic payments also comes with a side effect: less business for the U.S. Postal Service, an agency that is already facing big budget problems with the rise of email and electronic bill paying.
The private sector has been migrating to electronic payments for years, costing the Postal Service millions of customers, said Alan Robinson, editor of the Postal Journal, a trade publication.
"Normally, these things happen one customer at a time," Robinson said. "In terms of payments, this is probably one of the largest."


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Manganese is a pinkish-gray, chemically active metal. It is the first element in Group 7 of the periodic table. It resembles iron but is harder and more brittle. The metal exhibits allotropy; it has four different forms with varying physical properties. It can be highly polished. Manganese tarnishes in moist air and oxidizes when heated to form an oxide, Mn3O4. It slowly displaces hydrogen from water. It reacts readily with hydrochloric and sulfuric acids and with the halogens.
In compounds, manganese assumes a number of different oxidation states. It is easily raised to the +2 state, for example, by reaction with hydrochloric acid to form manganous chloride, MnCl2. Manganese is also found in the +3 (manganic) state, but this state is unstable and usually reverts to the +2 state. Both manganous and manganic ions form acidic solutions. Manganese is found in the +4 state largely in manganese dioxide, MnO2 ; the +4 oxidation state is amphoteric, i.e., in the +4 state manganese can either donate or accept electrons in chemical reactions. Manganese also exists in +6 and +7 states; the +6 state is found in the manganate ion (MnO4−−) and the +7 state in the permanganate ion (MnO4−). These ions are stable in basic solutions. There is also evidence for a +1 state (in a complex cyanide) and for an unstable +5 state (in basic solutions). Manganese is found in abundance in nature.
Pyrolusite (MnO2) is the major ore. Manganese ores are produced principally in South Africa, Australia, China, Brazil, Gabon, Ukraine, India, and a few other countries. The metal is prepared commercially by reduction of its ores with aluminum or, with high purity, by electrolysis of a manganese sulfate solution. Manganese is very important in the steel industry, where it is used as a deoxidizing and desulfurizing agent; no substitute has been found. It is also used in large amounts to toughen and harden steel without making it brittle; it is usually added as ferromanganese. Any steel having between 10% and 15% manganese is known as manganese steel, although almost all steel contains some manganese. Manganese is widely used in making alloys. Manganese bronze and manganese brass are alloys containing manganese, copper, tin, zinc, and small amounts of other metals in varying proportions. Certain alloys containing manganese, aluminum, antimony, and small amounts of copper are highly magnetic.
Compounds of manganese are widely used in industry. Manganese dioxide is used as a drying agent; it catalyzes the oxidation of oils in paints and varnishes. It is also used in the dry cell and to remove the green color caused by iron impurities in glass. Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is a powerful oxidizing agent used industrially for bleaching and in chemistry as an analytical reagent. Other compounds find use in glassmaking, as pigments, and as fertilizers. Manganese is needed as a nutrient in small amounts by many plants and animals and by humans. The purple color of amethyst is due to manganese. The element was first isolated in 1774 by J. G. Gahn, although its existence was previously recognized by T. O. Bergman and by K. W. Scheele.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Compounds and Elements


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UK WhatsApp users are not being forced to share their data with Facebook - the rumours debunked
Claims that a new WhatsApp update requires users to share their data with Facebook if they wish to continue using the messaging service have been circulating online and published by many UK news outlets.
However, it appears that the claims are not true. While a new update will require some users to agree to sharing their data with Facebook, users in the UK (and other regions in Europe) will not be affected.
'No changes to WhatsApp's data sharing practices'
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Hide AdA spokesperson for WhatsApp said: "There are no changes to WhatsApp's data sharing practices in the European region (including UK) arising from the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
"For the avoidance of any doubt, it is still the case that WhatsApp does not share European region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or advertisements."
Where did the rumour come from?
The confusion seems to have stemmed from the fact that locations around the world are actually serviced by two separate branches of WhatsApp, and those locations are subject to different laws.
WhatsApp Ireland Limited covers countries and territories within the European region, including countries in the European Union. The UK is listed under the areas serviced by this branch of WhatsApp.
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Hide AdYou can see the full list of countries and territories covered by WhatsApp Ireland Limited here.
For users who don't live in one of the countries or territories listed, WhatsApp services are provided by WhatsApp LLC, not WhatsApp Ireland Limited.
WhatsApp LLC recently updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, informing users that WhatsApp would be sharing their data with Facebook, which bought WhatsApp back in 2014.
WhatsApp LLC first began sharing data with Facebook in 2016 by default, but users were given the option to opt out of this data sharing. In the most recent update, data sharing has been made mandatory, with no opt out option available.
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Hide AdThe information being shared by WhatsApp LLC includes, but is not limited to:
- Your account registration information (such as your phone number)
- Transaction data
- Service-related information
- Information on how you interact with others (including businesses) when using [WhatsApp] services, mobile device information, your IP address
The WhatsApp LLC Privacy Policy updates state that Facebook "may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook company Products".
This includes things like personalising adverts and content.
However, this update does not affect WhatsApp users in the UK, or across the rest of the European region.
'WhatsApp does not share European Region WhatsApp user data with Facebook'
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWhatsApp users in the UK are subject to separate privacy policies, which differ from the privacy policies applying to users outside of the European region.
Niahm Sweeny, Director of Policy for WhatsApp, wrote a thread of tweets to clear up the situation.
Sweeny wrote: "It has been incorrectly reported that WhatsApp's latest Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update requires users in the European Region to agree to the sharing of data with Facebook for ads purposes in order to continue using the service. This is false.
"There are no changes to WhatsApp's data sharing practices in Europe arising from this update. It remains the case that WhatsApp does not share European Region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or ads."
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe FAQ page on the WhatsApp website also elaborates: "Today, Facebook does not use your WhatsApp account information to improve your Facebook product experiences or provide you more relevant Facebook ad experiences on Facebook.
"This is a result of discussions with the Irish Data Protection Commission and other Data Protection Authorities in Europe. We're always working on new ways to improve how you experience WhatsApp and the other Facebook Company Products you use.
"Should we choose to share such data with the Facebook Companies for this purpose in the future, we will only do so when we reach an understanding with the Irish Data Protection Commission on a future mechanism to enable such use."
Did WhatsApp Ireland Limited also have an update?
UK users may have noticed a recent notification when opening WhatsApp about updates to the terms and conditions of the app.
The notification states that the key updates include:
- WhatsApp's service and how it processes your data
- How businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats
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Hide AdWhatsApp users outside the UK, which are serviced by WhatsApp LLC, also received this notification, but it included a third bullet point, which said: "How [WhatsApp] partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the Facebook Company Products."
The new WhatsApp update will come into effect from 8 February 2021.
Users who have received this notification have the option to select the "not now" option to postpone agreeing to the update, however you will need to accept the new update by 8 February in order to continue using the app.


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Mainstream groups such as the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association endorse a unified set of dietary guidelines for people who wish to lose weight—eat a low-fat diet and cut calories.
However, many popular diet books take a very different approach. The Atkins diet, the Zone diet, Protein Power, and numerous other dietary approaches turn thumbs down on low-fat. Instead, these methods recommend cutting down on carbohydrates. According to proponents of these theories, when you reduce the carbohydrates in your diet (and, correspondingly, increase protein and/or fat), you will find it much easier to reduce your calorie intake, and you may even lose weight without cutting calories.
The controversy over these contradictions has been heated. Proponents of the low-fat diet claim that low-carbohydrate diets are ineffective and even dangerous, while low-carb proponents say much the same about the low-fat approach. However, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that neither side has a strong case. Researchers concluded, essentially, that a calorie is a calorie, regardless of whether it comes from a low-carbohydrate or a low-fat diet.1 They did not find any consistent evidence that the low-carb diet makes it easier to lose weight than the low-fat diet, but neither did they find any consistent evidence for the reverse. Furthermore, the authors of the JAMA review did not find any compelling reason to conclude that low-carb diets are unsafe, although they did point out that the long-term safety of such diets remains unknown.
Subsequent studies confirmed these findings for a variety of low-carb diets.4-9,11-15,18,20-21,29 In some studies, one particular diet method may do better than others. But, in other studies, a different diet stands out.
For example, researchers reviewing 13 studies comparing low-carb against low-fat/low-calorie diets in overweight subjects for at least 6 months concluded that the low-carb diets tended to perform better at reducing weight and cardiovascular disease factors for up to 1 year.31 But, in a subsequent trial involving 144 obese subjects with diabetes, researchers found that a low-carb diet did not result in greater weight loss when compared to a low-fat diet over a 2-year period, nor did it perform any better at improving blood cholesterol or glucose levels.32
As research continues, a consensus has yet to emerge among nutrition scientists as to which diet performs better overall. Many of the studies cited above suggest that if a diet causes weight loss, cholesterol will improve regardless of the diet used to achieve that weight loss. However, the manner of change in cholesterol profile differs between the two approaches. Low-fat diets tend to improve total and LDL cholesterol levels, but worsen HDL and triglyceride levels, while low-carb, high fat diets have the opposite effect.22
The Mediterranean diet, which is relatively high in fiber and monounsaturated fats (eg, olive oil) has also attracted the attention of nutrition researchers. There is good evidence that it is as effective as low-carb diets for weight reduction, and probably more effective than low-fat diets.30 It also seems to have the added advantage of benefiting diabetic patients more than the other two diets.
However, if one undertakes a low-carb (or low-fat) diet that does not cause weight loss, cholesterol profile will probably not improve significantly. In addition, there is little to no evidence that the low-carb approach improves blood sugar control except insofar as it leads to weight loss. However, there is a bit of evidence that a low-carb, high-monounsaturated fat diet reduces blood pressure to a slightly greater extent than a high-carb, low-fat diet.19 Contrary to claims by some low-carb proponents, low-fat, high-carb diets do not seem to metabolically backfire and promote weight gain.16
Therefore, based on the current state of information, it seems that the most sensible course is as follows: If you need to lose weight, experiment with different diets, and see which one allows you to most easily cut calories (and keep them cut). If the low-carb diet approach works for you, stick with it. However, if it does not help you lose weight, you probably should not continue it indefinitely.
Note : Any form of extreme dieting can cause serious side effects or even death. We strongly recommend that all people who intend to adopt an unconventional diet should first seek medical advice. Furthermore, people with kidney failure should not use low-carb, high-protein diets, as high protein intake can easily overstress failing kidneys. (High-protein diets are probably not harmful for people with healthy kidneys.2,3)
In addition, people who take the blood thinner warfarin (Coumadin) may need to have their blood coagulation tested after beginning a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. Two case reports suggest that such diets may decrease the effectiveness of warfarin, requiring a higher dose.10 Conversely, if you are already on warfarin and a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet and go off the diet, you may need to reduce your warfarin dose.
1. Bravata DM, Sanders L, Huang J. Efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets: a systematic review. JAMA. 2003;289:1837-1850.
2. Knight EL, Stampfer MJ, Hankinson SE, et al. The impact of protein intake on renal function decline in women with normal renal function or mild renal insufficiency. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138:460-467.
3. Williams C. Macronutrients and performance. J Sports Sci. 1995;13:1-10.
4. Samaha FF, Iqbal N, Seshadri P, et al. A low-carbohydrate as compared with a low-fat diet in severe obesity. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:2074-2081.
5. Pirozzo S, Summerbell C, Cameron C, et al. Should we recommend low-fat diets for obesity? Obes Rev. 2003;4:83-90.
6. Foster GD, Wyatt HR, Hill JO, et al. A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:2082-2090.
7. Pelkman CL, Fishell VK, Maddox DH, et al. Effects of moderate-fat (from monounsaturated fat) and low-fat weight-loss diets on the serum lipid profile in overweight and obese men and women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004;79:204-212.
8. Dansinger ML, Gleason JA, Griffith JL, et al. Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets for weight loss and heart disease risk reduction: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2005;293:43-53.
9. Johnston CS, Tjonn SL, Swan PD. High-protein, low-fat diets are effective for weight loss and favorably alter biomarkers in healthy adults. J Nutr. 2004;134:586-591.
10. Beatty SJ, Mehta BH, Rodis JL. Decreased warfarin effect after initiation of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. Ann Pharmacother. 2005;39:744-747.
11. Luscombe-Marsh ND, Noakes M, Wittert GA, et al. Carbohydrate-restricted diets high in either monounsaturated fat or protein are equally effective at promoting fat loss and improving blood lipids. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;81:762-772.
12. Petersen M, Taylor MA, Saris WH, et al. Randomized, multi-center trial of two hypo-energetic diets in obese subjects: high- versus low-fat content. Int J Obes (Lond). 2005 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print].
13. Appel LJ, Sacks FM, Carey VJ, et al. Effects of Protein, Monounsaturated Fat, and Carbohydrate Intake on Blood Pressure and Serum Lipids: Results of the OmniHeart Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2005;294:2455-2464.
14. Nordmann AJ, Nordmann A, Briel M, et al. Effects of Low-Carbohydrate vs Low-Fat Diets on Weight Loss and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:285-293.
15. Luscombe-Marsh ND, Noakes M, Wittert GA, et al. Carbohydrate-restricted diets high in either monounsaturated fat or protein are equally effective at promoting fat loss and improving blood lipids. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;81:762-772.
16. Howard BV, Manson JE, Stefanick ML, et al. Low-fat dietary pattern and weight change over 7 years: the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial. JAMA. 2006;295:39-49.
17. Hodgson JM, Burke V, Beilin LJ, et al. Increased protein intake from lean red meat replacing carbohydrate-rich foods lowers blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14: Suppl:S64.
18. Gardner CD, Kiazand A, Alhassan S, et al. Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A TO Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2007;297:969-977.
19. Shah M, Adams-Huet B, Garg A. Effect of high-carbohydrate or high-cis-monounsaturated fat diets on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of intervention trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85:1251-1256.
20. Ebbeling CB, Leidig MM, Feldman HA, et al. Effects of a low-glycemic load vs low-fat diet in obese young adults: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2007;297:2092-2102.
21. Wal JS, McBurney MI, Moellering N, et al. Moderate-carbohydrate low-fat versus low-carbohydrate high-fat meal replacements for weight loss. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2007;58:321-329.
22. Tay J, Brinkworth GD, Noakes M, et al. Metabolic effects of weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet compared with an isocaloric high-carbohydrate diet in abdominally obese subjects. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008;51:59-67.
23. Howard BV, Van Horn L, Hsia J, et al. Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of cardiovascular disease: the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial. JAMA. 2006;295:655-666.
24. Berglund L, Lefevre M, Ginsberg HN, et al. Comparison of monounsaturated fat with carbohydrates as a replacement for saturated fat in subjects with a high metabolic risk profile: studies in the fasting and postprandial states. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86:1611-1620.
25. Pelkman CL, Fishell VK, Maddox DH, et al. Effects of moderate-fat (from monounsaturated fat) and low-fat weight-loss diets on the serum lipid profile in overweight and obese men and women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004;79:204-212.
26. Lichtenstein AH. Dietary fat and cardiovascular disease risk: quantity or quality? J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2003;12:109-114.
27. Hu FB, Willett WC. Optimal diets for prevention of coronary heart disease. JAMA. 2002;288:2569-2578.
28. Sacks FM, Katan M. Randomized clinical trials on the effects of dietary fat and carbohydrate on plasma lipoproteins and cardiovascular disease. Am J Med. 2002;113:13S-24S.
29. Johnstone AM, Horgan GW, Murison SD, et al. Effects of a high-protein ketogenic diet on hunger, appetite, and weight loss in obese men feeding ad libitum. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;87:44-55.
30. Shai I, Schwarzfuchs D, Henkin Y, et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or low-fat diet. N Engl J Med. 2008;359:229-241.
31. Hession M, Rolland C, Kulkarni U, et al. Systematic review of randomized controlled trials of low-carbohydrate vs. low-fat/low-calorie diets in the management of obesity and its comorbidities. Obes Rev. 2008 Aug 11.
32. Iqbal N, Vetter ML, Moore RH, et al. Effects of a low-intensity intervention that prescribed a low-carbohydrate vs. a low-fat diet in obese, diabetic participants. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010;18(9):1733-1738.
Last reviewed September 2014 by EBSCO CAM Review Board