Big News is back

Well that didn't last long. Actually, given that today is 1 April I have decided that I will continue blogging. If you keep reading, I'll keep blogging, okay?

Why Read the Low-Carb Diet Book Before Starting?

Some people when they want to do low-carbing, they wing it, without reading any books. That's a problem because so many myths abound. For instance, some people think we only eat meat. Others think we have some veggies, but are never allowed fruit or grains. Worse yet, some people think all we eat is bacon, eggs, cheese, steak and more steak! However, when we are eating a balanced low-carb diet, we're eating adequate protein for our particular body (not too much otherwise it converts back into glucose anyway through a process called gluconeogenesis), and plenty of salads and vegetables. In fact, most low-carbers eat more vegetables than non low-carbers, because that is where the majority of our carbs come from or should come from. One learns to really relish and love them and I mean really love them! Many people become adventurous and try all sorts of different veggies for the very first time.

In addition, as we progress past the first two weeks of induction, most of us can climb the carb ladder gradually to about 40 to 60 grams a day and still lose (If I'm doing intermittent fasting, I don't need to count carbs and have at least 60 grams a day - I have done some posts on that way of eating which combines really favorably with low-carb eating.). Fruit and grains do get added back in, but not in great quantities as the carbs quickly add up. Desserts and treats, nice as they are, should be occasional or kept only for the weekends - something to look forward to, but not to have on a daily basis while actively trying to lose weight. They can be kept in the freezer for an emergency if one needs something. However, making a quick dessert in the microwave like a 3-min chocolate cake with or without frosting can hit the spot.

Yogurt is something I really enjoy and I like to add a few frozen blueberries as they offer so much in anti-oxidants and other nutrients. 1 cup of plain yogurt is 4 grams of carbs. Do a search on yogurt on my blog and you will see why.

The very best thing to do before starting a low-carb diet is to read the book or books and find one that you like and stick with it. Read the book periodically to make sure you're doing it correctly. Keep a daily food journal with your weight plugged in at least weekly for motivation. Do your diet quietly and don't tell too many people as many will try to dissuade you or derail you for various reasons. Lose weight quietly and your success will speak for itself. When they ask and really want to know the truth, then you can share your secret. :-)

It's a healthy way to live for many of us who suffer from hyperinsulinism (body pours out too much insulin upon eating carbohydrates), as the diet does an end run on insulin output very effectively and thus curbs hunger and reduces fat storage.

All the best and happy low-carbing!

Lawyer: Beheading planned in Saudi sorcery case

(CNN) -- A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, the man's lawyer said Wednesday.

May El Khansa, the attorney for Ali Hussain Sibat (pictured with his children), told CNN that she and Sibat's family were informed about the upcoming execution. She said she heard from a source in Saudi Arabia with knowledge of the case and the proceedings that Saudi authorities "will carry out the execution."

The Saudi Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.

El Khansa said she has appealed to Lebanon's prime minister, Saad Hariri, and president, Michel Suleiman, to stop the execution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to block it as well.

TV presenter gets death sentence for 'sorcery'

Sibat is the former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Beirut-based satellite TV channel "Sheherazade." According to his lawyer, Sibat would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.

El Khansa told CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.

Sibat was then put on trial, and in November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

According to El Khansa, Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was "premature."

El Khansa tells CNN that the Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent.

On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.

"The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.

Source: CNN.com, March 31, 2010

Knocking it on the head. Goodbye...

I'm going to finish up blogging. Ive been doing it for years, but I started a new job yesterday that pretty much prevents me from blogging - at least means that there are some things I should not be blogging on - particularly in work time, like I did yesterday.

So I thought I'd knock it off. Goodbye - It's nice to have known you. It's nice to have broken a few stories, nice to have made some friends through the blog. I`ll miss it - but better to take this line than to get me in trouble with the boss.

Military in the Democratic Republic of Congo holds ‘show trial’ appeal hearing for Joshua French

Military in the Democratic Republic of Congo holds ‘show trial’ appeal hearing for Joshua French, Briton facing execution, with neither Joshua nor his lawyer present.

Briton Joshua French (pictured) was yesterday due to plead for his life in an appeal hearing at the Military High Court in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Instead, both Joshua and his lawyer were trapped hundreds of miles away in Kisangani, eastern DRC, while the hearing went ahead without them.

Their absence was due to the Court’s failure to give Joshua’s legal team adequate notice, informing them of the crucial hearing only last Friday. Because Joshua’s defence lawyer is based in Kisangani, where Joshua is imprisoned, he relies on UN flights to Kinshasa which must be booked at least five days in advance -- a fact that can hardly be unknown to the Court. A judgment will be handed down within eight days.

Reprieve’s Director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Like the rest of the proceedings against Joshua, yesterday's appeal was a mockery of justice. He was not present, his lawyer was not given sufficient notice to be present. To paraphrase the famous Irishman, a system where they hold appeals in absentia really only has the right to carry out executions in absentia. The government must continue to make every effort to get this man basic fairness."

Joshua and his friend Tjostolv Moland received multiple death sentences on 8 September 2009 for murder and espionage. Joshua, who has a Norwegian mother and British father, had been forced to sign a confession after being beaten and subjected to a mock execution. Joshua is receiving assistance from Norwegian lawyers Morten Furuholmen and Marius Dietrichson, together with Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund of the Death Penalty Project and Reprieve.

For more information please contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk 020 7427 1099/ 07931592674 or visit www.reprieve.org.uk/joshuafrench.

Case background:

At the end of April last year Joshua French and his co-defendant Tjostolv Moland travelled to the DRC from Uganda on a motorbike trip. When their motorbike broke down in Kisangani they hired a car and a driver, Abedi Kasongo, to drive them to Beni where they had a friend who would be able to take them back to Uganda. Two Congolese passengers travelled with them. Several hours into the journey, in the middle of the rainforest, the driver, Kasongo, was shot and killed.

The authorities allege that French and Moland killed Kasongo, but both men maintain that they were ambushed by gunmen. The authorities also allege that French and Moland are Norwegian spies, and that the maps, compasses, GPS system, mobile phones and cameras they were carrying prove this. After his arrest, French, who has a Norwegian mother and British father, was forced to sign a confession after being beaten and subjected to a mock execution.

On 8 September 2009 French and Moland were sentenced to multiple death sentences for murder and espionage. These sentences were upheld on appeal on 3 December 2009. The Appeal Court also ordered French, Moland and Norway to pay the DRC US$ 500 million in damages. Both the trial and appeal were held in French, a language which neither French nor Moland understands. Large parts of the proceedings were not translated and at the appeal verdict hearing the judge told the interpreter to stop translating because “it was taking too long”.

Over time the State’s case has changed drastically. As evidence, the prosecution has produced photographs of two guns – both photographs were taken in Norway and neither weapon has ever left Norway. During the appeal Moland was suffering from cerebral malaria. He was extremely ill and was hallucinating. The prosecution allege that during this time he wrote a letter confessing that he was a spy and that he killed Kasongo. This letter has not been disclosed to the defence. An independent panel of doctors instructed by the court concluded that Moland was suffering from a psychosis and recommended that he be referred to a neuro-psychiatrist. This was ignored by the Court. The judge even accused Moland’s doctor of poisoning him and had him arrested.

Both men are former soldiers. French was born in Norway but lived in the seaside town of Margate, Kent as a child. He moved back to Norway when his parents divorced, but returned to the UK aged 20 and served in the British Army. He also served in the Norwegian Army where he met Moland. They both left the Norwegian Army in 2007 and worked as security guards in various places, including the Gulf of Aden where they worked guarding against pirates.

French and Moland are being tried in the military courts - a clear violation of the DRC’s own constitution, which stipulates that the jurisdiction of the military courts is limited to offences committed by members of the armed forces and the national police. Military courts trying civilian cases is far from uncommon in the DRC, however, and the military courts claim they have jurisdiction over any offence involving firearms regardless of whether the defendants are military or civilian. The right to a fair trial is constantly violated and judges and generals regularly abuse their power.

Prison conditions in DRC are appalling; cells are extremely small for the number of prisoners they hold and many cells have no windows, lights, electricity, running water or toilet facilities. Health care is inadequate and infectious diseases are rampant. Both men have caught malaria several times.

Source: REPRIEVE, March 31, 2010

Superman comic sold by $1.5m

A copy of the comic in which Superman complete his first appearance was sold at a US mart for $1.5m (£995,500) - weeks after a Batman comic had sold by $1.075m.

Actually in the year 1938 edition of Action Comics No 1 was sold originally for just 10 cents.

This is the 3rd time the record has been beaten recently, a copy of the same Superman comic sold at $1m just days before the Batman comic was sold.

Police hunt bank robber at Waikato bank

Two women tellers at the BNZ Bank in Putaruru were enforced to hand over an unnamed amount of money to the men. It happened at 4.36pm & late tonight police were look for the outlaws.

Police commend the tellers for keeping their cool & co-operating with the thief. The robbers had enveloped their identities with clothing & glasses. One was armed with a gun.

"The 2 female tellers were deals with & demands made for money, however no violence was happened," Mr Verry said. He also said a stolen white Nissan Primera car, was found by police several building blocks away. Police were carrying out a scene examination & interviewing witnesses.

NASA astronauts gets ready for blast-off

A NASA astronaut & 2 Russian cosmonauts will be inside & will travel to the International Space Station.

NASA's Tracy Caldwell Dyson & Russians Alexander Skvortsov & Mikhail Kornienko are to blast off at 10.04am (0404 GMT) Friday for their 6 month mission in the orbiting science lab.

Workers at the craft's storage hangar slid open the gate just before daybreak on Wednesday & fixed the Soyuz rocket on a flatbed train for slow transportation to the launch location. Armed police with sniffer dogs are used for the security reasons on the train.

High Fat Breakfast may be good for you at morning

Metabolic syndrome is described by abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance & added heart disease risk issues. The case, published in the current International Journal of Obesity, inspect how different types of foods & specific timing of eating influenced the development of metabolic syndrome in mice.

The study exposed that mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking up had normal metabolic profiles. On the other hand, they found mice that ate a carbohydrate-rich meal in the morning & a high fat meal at the end of the day had boosted weight gain, glucose intolerance & other factors related to metabolic syndrome.

"This study advised that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich breakfast it would help carbohydrate utilization during the rest of the day, but, if you have a fat-rich breakfast, you have metabolic plasticity to transfer your energy utilization among carbohydrate & fat.

Bombs attack kills 12 in Russia

Two bombs are exploded at Russia's southern republic of Dagestan on Wednesday, officials said. In this blast kills 12 people, 9 of them were police officers.

Another 23 people, including 11 police officers, were hospitalized with injuries from the bombings, minimum of 1 which was carried out by a suicide bomber, according to a spokesperson.

Two days before the female bombers kill minimum of 39 people on the Moscow metro. It is also carried out by the same terrorist group. Russian investigators have believed Chechen rebels may have been behind Monday's fatal bombings in Moscow, although no one has claimed responsibility.

GI News—April 2010

• Why some of us are designed to drink milk and others aren’t
• The GI values of milks and yogurts
• Milk, muscle gain and fat loss
• Calcium, vitamin D and diabetes risk
• Are dairy-free diets better for you?
• Chocolate milk and recovery after exercise
• Nutrition profiling

For many of us, milk and yogurt are the key to strong healthy bones. By choosing the reduced fat or skim varieties we enjoy a low GI food that provides us with sustained energy and boosts our calcium intake but not our saturated fat intake. In this issue we will be looking at other benefits including the role of dairy foods in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and why some athletes like chocolate milk.

Good eating, good health and good reading.

Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD

Food for Thought

Why some of us are designed to drink milk and others aren’t
‘The answer lies in evolution and genetic changes and not in ideology,’ says Glenn Cardwell.


Glenn Cardwell

What is lactose intolerance? Our major source of lactose is milk (cow, goat, sheep, domesticated buffalo, camel and human) or yogurt. It is not found in hard cheese or butter. When we are born, we have a digestive enzyme called lactase to break down lactose in breast milk to its constituent sugars, glucose and galactose, which are then absorbed into the blood.

By the age of five, many people no longer produce their lactase enzyme and can’t digest lactose any more. For them, large amounts of lactose can cause intestinal cramping because gut bacteria convert the lactose to gas and lactic acid. Not comfortable. They are now lactose intolerant.

Why some of us can continue drinking milk after early childhood Scientists have been able to check DNA from around the world and by marrying their findings to human history (who lived where, when), have given us a better understanding why some of us can enjoy milk and yogurt and ice-cream right throughout our lives and others can’t.

Around 10,000 years ago, when humans started to keep cattle as a beasts of burden and a source of meat, the ability to handle lactose in adulthood was absent. However, at some point over the next thousand years or so, a mutation occurred which allowed some people to be able to drink milk well past their fifth birthday and on into adulthood. Researchers who have studied the DNA from skeleton remains in central Europe, report that about 80% of people in this area had the mutation for tolerating lactose about 7000 years ago. This is a rapid spread of a mutation, strongly suggesting that it offered a survival advantage to milk drinkers, according to a new book (and a really terrific read), The 10,000 Year Explosion – How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution (Gregory Cochran & Henry Harpending).

Over time, the mutation became more dominant in parts of Europe through to northern India. It is thought the mutation occurred independently in parts of Arabia when the camel became domesticated and camel milk became part of the local diet.



In fact, being able to tolerate lactose in the diet, allowed the expansion of Indo-Europeans, tracked by both the spread of lactose tolerance and the Indo-European languages (e.g. Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, German, French). Put another way, if your native language was Indo-European in origin, then there was a good chance you could handle lactose over the last 7000 years or so. It also explains why eastern and southern Asia, Japan, parts of Africa and the indigenous folk of Australia have both a very different language background and the inability to handle lactose after being weaned.’

Glenn's complete article is HERE.

News Briefs

Dairy foods and weight
Although the jury is still out, the bulk of the evidence suggests that dairy foods play a beneficial role in weight management according to Dr Marta Van Loan who has reviewed some of the most recent scientific evidence in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Her umbrella review covers observational and retrospective studies with adults as well as children and adolescents plus randomized clinical trials on body weight and composition, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation and fecal fat loss. She turns to research from animal and in vitro studies to investigate possible mechanisms.


Dr Marta Van Loan

In her conclusion she says: ‘In general, data from observational studies shows that dairy is a healthy, nutrient-rich food that, as part of a balanced diet, is inversely associated with body weight and body fat in children, adolescents and adults. In addition, several randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that diets including three servings of milk, yogurt and cheese per day enhance body weight and/or body fat loss in obese and overweight adults during caloric restriction and when dairy and/or calcium intakes are increased from inadequate to adequate. Moreover, weight loss was achieved in all clinical studies examining the role of dairy in weight loss where caloric-restriction was induced.’

Calcium, vitamin D and diabetes risk
Getting enough calcium and vitamin D for strong bones is a message we are all pretty familiar with. But there’s more. Emerging evidence suggests that getting enough of them also plays a role in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. And many of us aren’t getting enough.

Looking at the role of vitamin D and calcium in type 2 diabetes in a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Dr A. G. Pittas and colleagues found that:

• ‘Observational studies show a relatively consistent association between low vitamin D status, calcium or dairy intake, and type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.’
• ‘Evidence from trials with vitamin D and/or calcium supplementation suggests that combined vitamin D and calcium supplementation may have a role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes only in populations at high risk (i.e. those with impaired glucose intolerance).’
• ‘The available evidence is limited because most observational studies are cross-sectional and did not adjust for important confounders, whereas intervention studies were short in duration, included few subjects, used a variety of formulations.’

In examining the intake of milk and milk products specifically between type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, the researchers found there was a lower risk for type 2 diabetes among individuals with the highest dairy intake (3–5 servings per day) compared to those getting less than 1½ servings each day. They make the point that ‘although calcium and vitamin D are important components of dairy products, their contribution to the measured outcomes cannot be separated from other components in dairy products.’

You can find links to recent papers on dairy foods and type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome published in peer-reviewed journals on Canada’s Dairy Nutrition website HERE and in the European Dairy Association's (EDA) quarterly newsletter, Dairy Nutrition Digest.

Dairy foods may reduce diabetes risk
A diet with a higher intake of milk and a lower intake of staples like bread and rice may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes suggests the latest findings from the Shanghai Women’s Health Study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers identified three patterns: cluster 1 – women with the highest intake of dietary staples (rice, bread, and associated products); cluster 2 – women with the highest intake of dairy milk; cluster 3 – women with the highest energy intake. They found women in cluster 2:

• Were less likely to have abdominal obesity or hypertension when they entered the study compared with women in clusters 1 and 3.
• Had a 22% lower relative risk for developing type 2 diabetes during follow-up (when cluster 1 women were used as a reference).

Milk and recovery after exercise
‘Several studies report that milk can be just as effective as sports drinks to aid recovery in athletes,’ says Dr Emma Stevenson. ‘Cockburn and colleagues found having plain semi-skim milk after exercise that had resulted in muscle damage was more effective than a carbohydrate sports drink at lessening the decrease in muscle performance and the increase in creatine kinase and myoglobin (these are blood markers of muscle damage).’

However, at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, it was chocolate milk not plain semi-skim milk that was conspicuous by its presence with numerous elite athletes regularly seen drinking it. In 2006, Karp and colleagues had reported in the Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism that chocolate milk not only reduces muscle damage after exercise, but can also improve subsequent endurance capacity in well trained cyclists. It’s the extra sugars in chocolate milk that make it better for recovery than plain milk they speculated.

In a 2009 study published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, nine trained male cyclists cycled 51% and 43% longer after drinking chocolate milk than after carbohydrate and fluid replacement drinks respectively despite the beverages having very similar calorie (or energy) contents. For this study, the athletes completed a glycogen depletion workout, drank one of the three test beverages during a four-hour recovery period, and then cycled in an endurance capacity trial over three experimental trials. 'This difference could be attributable to differences in carbohydrate type and (or) fat content between the beverages,' write the study authors.

‘It is most likely that the combination of carbs and protein provided in milk is the reason why it is such a good recovery product for athletes,’ says Dr Stevenson. ‘Skim or reduced fat milk (plain or chocolate) also has a low GI and so can be a healthier alternative to sports drinks (yes, even with the added sugar in the chocolate drink).’


Photo: Cass Mortimer Eipper, Timothy O'Donnell, Emma Sandall and Joseph Simons from dance company Ludwig: www.ludwig.com.au

Milk, muscle gain and fat loss
A recent study by researchers at Canada’s McMasters University has found that women, like men, can reap the benefits of skim milk when exercising and training. The March issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found women who drank 2 cups of skim milk immediately after resistance exercise gained more muscle mass that those who drank a sports drink. The milk drinkers also benefited from a reduction in fat mass; the sports drink drinkers didn’t. For the study, the women exercised five days a week for 12 weeks and changes in their body composition were measured. ‘We believe there are two main constituents (among many other minor ones) responsible for the beneficial effects on muscle gain and fat loss,’ says lead author Andrea Josse, ‘protein and calcium/vitamin D.’

Nutrition profiling
US First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at the Grocery Manufacturers Association Conference said: ‘The vast majority of Americans rely on labels to help them decide what foods to buy. But we know those labels aren’t always as helpful as they could be. And it’s hard enough to figure out whether any one food item is healthy. It’s even harder to compare items. And folks just don’t have the time to line products up side by side and figure out whether these compare or not. And they shouldn’t have to ... We need clear, consistent, front-of-the-package labels that give people the information they’ve been asking for, in a format that they understand’


Michelle Obama

While we wait for those ‘clear, consistent, front-of-the-package labels,’ US-based Hannaford Supermarkets did something about it. They introduced the Guiding Stars nutrition profiling scheme to make it easier and quicker for people to identify the healthier options in their stores. With the exception of bottled water, alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, spices, all edible products are rated. The more nutritional value a food has for its calories, the more stars it gets on a good, better, best nutritional value scale of zero to three. Many get zero.

Does it work? Well it may not be the perfect system (it does not take account of a food’s GI value for example), but research recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that it has had a positive influence on healthier food choices. The study was conducted by Dr Lisa Sutherland and colleagues who were on the program's Scientific Advisory Panel at the time the research was undertaken.

‘We used purchasing data from 2006 to 2008 from Hannaford Supermarkets,’ said Sutherland, ‘and examined the data before the Guiding Stars scheme was introduced and one and two years after it was implemented. When we looked at ready-to-eat breakfast cereals as a case study, we found that purchase of star-rated cereals by shoppers significantly increased at one-year and continued to increase in year-two. Although we did not measure individual diet, the purchasing of low-sugar, high-fiber cereals increased greatly after program implementation. This finding is of particular importance to our understanding the potential impact of such programs on consumer diet’.



Betts Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Guiding Stars Licensing Company, told GI News that the program ‘has now been implemented in more than 1500 supermarkets in the US including Hannaford, Food Lion, Bloom and Sweetbay. Kings Super Markets will launch Guiding Stars in 2010.’ Read more at www.guidingstars.com.

GI Group: If you shop in these supermarkets, please tell us if you find nutrition profiling like this helpful and whether seeing one, two, three or no stars has changed any purchasing decisions.

Food of the Month

Milk and yogurt in a low GI diet
Reduced or low fat or skim dairy and soy milk and yogurt are handy foods to have on hand for healthy drinks or snacks that can lower the overall GI of your diet.

Milk’s low GI (20–34 for various skim to regular fat cow milks) is a combination of its naturally low GI sugar (lactose) plus milk protein, which forms a soft curd in the stomach and slows down the rate of stomach emptying. The unique mix of amino acids in cow milk protein are also thought to stimulate insulin secretion, further lowering the GI. Low fat flavoured milks also have a low GI (26–42). Yes, they have added sugar, but it’s in relatively modest amounts (about 4%) compared with soft drinks (11–12%). Some are also made with alternative sweeteners. We don’t have GI values for goat milk as it hasn’t been tested (nor has camel milk). However, they are likely to be similar to cow milk.


Soy milk is dairy- and lactose-free and an easy way to include soy protein in your diet. The GI values of soy milks range from 16–45. To ensure it is a suitable alternative to regular dairy milk, manufacturers enrich it with calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B12.

Oat milk’s GI value (69) is roughly twice that of dairy milk, however we think it’s probably a better option than rice milk (GI 79–92) if you are choosing a grain-based milk. Look for calcium-enriched products. The only GI-tested almond milk to date is Almond Breeze (GI 25 for Almond Breeze Original). It’s not a significant source of protein or carbs (1g and 2g respectively in 240ml serving). We reported on it in GI News HERE. Rice milks that have been tested to date have very high GI values (Australia’s Own GI 92 and Vitasoy GI 79). They are typically processed from brown rice and are essentially a source of carbs (24g per cup). Choose calcium-enriched products if you buy them.

Yogurt’s low GI values are thanks (mainly) to the combination of acidity and high protein and of course the fact that lactose, the sugar in milk, has a naturally low GI (46). How low does yogurt go? Well, testing at the University of Sydney has found ‘diet’ yogurts have the lowest GI values (14–21) and contain fewer kilojoules/calories, and around half the carbohydrate compared with yogurts that have added sugars (26–43). Even if you are lactose intolerant, you can enjoy yogurt without symptoms because the ‘bugs’ (i.e. culture organisms added to milk to make yogurt) do the job of lactase digestion for you.



Soy yogurt (GI 50) is usually made from soybeans or soy protein rather than soy drink. Look for calcium-enriched, low fat varieties.

In the GI News Kitchen

American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI from her Italian kitchen. For more information, check out Johanna's website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.

Seafood and mushroom lasagne
Lasagne is often the first choice for a special menu. I always use traditional Italian uncooked lasagne sheets. If you use pre-cooked ones, make extra white sauce for extra moisture.
Serves 8

2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup shallots or onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
230g (8oz) mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ tbsp fresh thyme leaves
450g (1lb) seafood (I use 225g/½lb medium-size uncooked shrimps/prawns, cut into 6 pieces and 225g/½lb scallops, quartered
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups 2% milk
4 tbsp butter or margarine
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
16 lasagne strips uncooked

• Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
• In a large, heavy-based skillet or frying pan, add the olive oil, shallots and garlic and sauté lightly for 2 minutes. Add in the mushrooms and continue sautéing for 2 minutes. Add the parsley and thyme, mix all ingredients well, and cook for 2 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add the shrimps. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring well. Add in the scallops. Continue cooking the mixture until all shrimp pieces have turned pink (approximately 2 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
• In a small pot, pour the milk and heat gently until it slowly begins to bubble (approximately 7 minutes), removed from heat and cover the milk to keep it hot.
• In a separate, small, heavy saucepan, melt the butter or margarine, add the flour and whisk briskly for 1–2 minutes, taking care to prevent browning. Gradually add the hot milk to the butter-flour mixture, a few tablespoons at a time, continuing to whisk. Continue until all the milk has been added and the mixture is smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
• In a large pot with salted boiling water, cook the lasagne strips, 6 at a time, following the manufacturer’s instructions. However, limit cooking time to just 7 minutes. Remove the lasagne strips with a slotted spoon and place on a clean linen kitchen towel, taking care that they do not overlap. Continue until all the pasta is cooked.
• Assemble the lasagne as follows: Place 2–3 tablespoons of the plain white (besciamella) sauce on the bottom of a lasagne pan (30 x 22 x 5cm deep/13 x 9 x 2¼in deep). Add the remaining sauce to the seafood-mushroom mixture. Place 4 lasagne strips on the bottom of the pan, allowing them to slightly overlap. Spread about ¾ cup of the mixture evenly over the pasta. Keep forming layers this way until all the pasta and sauce are used up. There will be 4 layers. Cover the pan with aluminium foil and place it on the upper rack of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, cover with aluminium foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Per serving
Energy: 1560 kJ/ 370 cals; Protein 22 g; Fat 12 g (includes 3 g saturated fat and 59 mg cholesterol if using margarine); Carbs 46 g; Fibre 2 g

Cut back on the food bills and enjoy easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with Money Saving Meals author Diane Temple. For more recipes check out Diane's Money Saving Meals website.

Cauliflower pasta
You can ring the changes with this recipe simply by using a different cheese or herb for flavouring.
Serves 4

300g (10 oz) pasta such as penne (or your favourite shapes)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cauliflower (about 750g/1½lb), cut into florets
1 cup fresh (low GI of course) breadcrumbs
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp chilli flakes (or more to taste)
2 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

• Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water following the directions on the packet until al dente. Drain, but reserve a little of the pasta cooking water. Tip the pasta back into the saucepan and stir in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Cover to keep warm. Meanwhile ...
• Cook the cauliflower until just tender (about 5 minutes), drain and set aside keeping warm. Heat 1½ tablespoons oil in a large frying pan and sauté the breadcrumbs and garlic for about 1½–2 minutes until the breadcrumbs are golden and crunchy, stirring constantly. Don't let them catch and burn. Tip them into a small heatproof bowl.
• Wipe the frying pan clean with a paper towel and heat the remaining oil. Sauté the chilli flakes, oregano and cauliflower for about 2–3 minutes on a medium heat until cauliflower starts to brown, stirring occasionally.
• Tip the cauliflower mixture into the pasta along with the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and chopped parsley, adding a little of the reserved pasta water of you wish. Season with freshly ground black pepper, mix thoroughly and serve.

Per serving
Energy: 1910kJ/ 456 cals; Protein 15 g; Fat 17 g (includes 3g saturated fat and 6mg cholesterol); Carbs 55g Fibre 7g

Gabriel Gaté’s mother’s rabbit, carrot and prune casserole
This recipe is from Recipes My Mother Cooked – a new book of family recipes and mealtime stories that provides a heart-warming reminder of the timeless benefits of home cooking and sitting down together for dinner. We would love to hear about your mother's favourite recipes.

‘My mother has always shared with me her love of good food. She is très gourmande! I grew up in the Loire Valley and my parents grew most of the vegetables, herbs and fruits that we needed. We also had a tiny vineyard and made our own wine. Both my Mum and Grandmother prepared the family meals, and from an early age encouraged us kids to contribute by asking us to do small jobs like peeling vegetables or making a salad dressing or mayonnaise. Some of my most memorable moments in the kitchen were helping to garnish the delicious home-made fruit tarts with raspberries, strawberries or apple. Rabbit was one of our favourite meats and during the winter months, wild rabbits were sometimes brought to us by relatives.’
Serves 4

1 rabbit, about 1.2kg (2lb) or rabbit pieces if you prefer
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 small brown onion
1½ tbsp plain flour
about 12 pitted prunes
1 cup red wine
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm thick slices
1 cup veal or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• Cut the rabbit into seven pieces (the four legs, and the body, cut in three). You can also buy
• Heat the oil on high heat, then brown the rabbit pieces on all sides. Add the thyme and stir well for 10 seconds. Add the chopped onion and cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir well. Add the prunes and wine and bring to the boil. Add the carrots and stock and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and a lid and cook gently for 2 hours or until the rabbit is tender and the flesh falls easily away from the bone. Stir in the parsley and garlic just before serving.

Per serving
Energy: 2030kJ/ 485 cals; Protein 61 g; Fat 13 g (includes 4g saturated fat and 153mg cholesterol); Carbs 17g Fibre 4g



Recipes My Mother Cooked is available in Australia HERE.

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: Dairy-free diets are better for you


Nicole Senior

Fact: Dairy foods are nutrient rich and low fat versions even better
Dairy foods (milk, yogurt, cheese) are nutrient rich and have assumed such importance in our diet as to warrant their own food group. This means that health experts and governments around the world have reviewed the evidence and concluded our health and wellbeing are enhanced by including dairy foods in our diets, and recommended us to eat them.

Along with their low GI status, there is a lot to recommend dairy foods. They are high in calcium needed for healthy bones and provide the majority of calcium in the diet. They also contain a bundle of other important nutrients including protein, vitamins A and B12, riboflavin, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Regular milk drinkers have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, and emerging research is discovering beneficial ‘bio-actives’ in dairy such as lactoferrin which enhances bone and immune health.

With so much to recommend them, why are there so many “dairy-free” claims on food these days? Why do naturopaths seem to routinely suggest people avoid dairy foods? Why are there websites devoted to the “dangers of dairy”?

Even though whole dairy foods do contain mostly saturated fat, this is easy to avoid by choosing low fat versions, and limiting hard cheese. Although some still believe milk is fattening, studies have demonstrated dairy foods may actually help with weight loss. The Asthma Foundation in Australia says that sufferers should not eliminate dairy without proper medical advice because food affects less than 5% of people with asthma. The idea that milk causes mucus has been studied in controlled conditions and has not stood up to scientific scrutiny.

Milk allergy affects 5% of children at most (and more likely 2%), and 1% of adults. Lactose intolerance is an issue for some people however complete dairy avoidance is not usually necessary. The anti-dairy argument is hard to reconcile with the idea that millions of humans have been eating dairy foods for several thousand years, and even today, the Masai in Tanzania live principally on milk, blood and meat.

Why do anti-dairy myths persist? Food myths are prevalent in societies where food is abundant and choices are practically endless. Are we fussy with our diets because we’re too well fed? Are we desperately clutching at ideas to narrow down our food options because they are now overwhelming? Are we looking to fix our broader dis-ease with hectic modern lifestyles? For those who have chosen the dairy-free path, I’m sorry to say there are a plethora of websites also attacking the safety and goodness of soy milk as well ...

If you’d like quality information on heart health and great recipes check out Nicole's website HERE.

U.S.: Application of the death penalty is a Southern tradition

There are 22 individuals scheduled to be executed from now through the month of October, with Texas the leader in the death penalty.

Texas has 11 people scheduled to die as part of its capital punishment system. The state continues to lead the nation in both its sentencing and application of the death penalty. The next highest ranking belongs to Ohio.

Franklin DeWayne Alix, age 34, and a black male, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow[written March 29, 2010]. He received the death sentence on November 12, 1998 when he was 23 years old. Alix is a 10th grade graduate and was born and raised in the State of Texas. His prior occupation is unknown, and he had no prior convictions at the time of his conviction.

According to Texas records, Alix murdered a black male on January 2, 1998. He had first kidnapped and raped the sister of the victim. Then he forced the victim to return to her apartment complex in Houston, where he loaded up his car with 2 televisions, a VCR and some stereo equipment. The victim of the shooting returned home and was chased down by Alix who subsequently shot him in the back.

Just yesterday Kathleen Garcia, who is a victims advocate and grief expert, and member of New Jersey's Death Penalty Study Commission on Capital Punishment, underlined her opposition to the imposition of the death penalty. She believes it is actually harmful to victims. She explains her position like this: "Make no mistake I am a conservative, a victims' advocate and a death penalty supporter. But my real life experience has taught me that as long as the death penalty is on the books in any form, it will continue to harm survivors". Garcia continues, by asserting that the death penalty is costly and harmful as victims families face years of trials and re-victimization. Furthermore victims families don't receive ongoing services, such as peer support and counseling to help them get through those years.

Garcia goes on to say the death penalty must be ended and replaced with life without parole. She suffered through the murder of a family member in 1984, but has found the death penalty to be much more harmful than helpful.

Just a few days ago a recently-elected Judge, Kevin Fine, said, according to the Houston Chronicle: "Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed. Its safe to assume we execute innocent people."

It is expected the judge's ruling will be appealed.

From 1976 to 2008 Texas has led the country in executions having 36.9% of the total with 66% of those on death row non-white. 80% of all executions have been performed in the former slave-holding states, plus Oklahoma, reflecting the Southern tradition of executions.

Source: Digital Journal, March 29, 2010

Body Work

Too much sitting is bad for your health
Our public health advisers tell us to exercise for just 30 minutes a day. But a recent study on television viewing time and mortality published in Circulation suggests that’s only part of the solution to the obesity problem, as the human body was designed to keep moving, not sit for extended periods of time.

Australian researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Australia tracked the TV viewing habits of 8800 adults in Australia (age 25 and older) over 6 years and found that compared with people who watched less than two hours of television daily, those who watched more than four hours a day had a 46% higher risk of death from all causes and an 80% increased risk for CVD-related death they report. This association held regardless of other independent and common cardiovascular disease risk factors, including smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, unhealthy diet, excessive waist circumference, and leisure-time exercises.


Associate Professor David Dunstan

‘It's not the sweaty type of exercise we’re losing,’ says Prof. David Dunstan, a leading researcher on the role of physical activity in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. ‘It’s the incidental moving around, walking around, standing up and utilizing muscles that doesn't happen when we're plunked on a couch in front of a television.’ In fact, the study participants typically reported getting between 30 and 45 minutes of exercise a day.

‘What has happened is that a lot of the normal activities of daily living that involved standing up and moving the muscles in the body have been converted to sitting,’ Dunstan said. ‘People don’t move their muscles as much as they used to – consequently the levels of energy expenditure as people go about their lives continue to shrink. For many people, on a daily basis they simply shift from one chair to another – from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television. Even if someone has a healthy body weight, sitting for long periods of time still has an unhealthy influence on their blood sugar and blood fats,’ he said. The implications are simple, Dunstan said. ‘In addition to doing regular exercise, avoid sitting for prolonged periods and keep in mind to ‘move more, more often’. Here are David's tips for moving more:

• Switch off, stand up and get moving
• Avoid prolonged periods of sitting – whether in front of the TV, a computer screen or on transport. At the very least get up and move once every hour
• Limit your TV viewing to two hours a day
• Use commercial breaks for household chores
• Stand up and move around while answering the telephone

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Finding healthy low GI milks, yogurts and alternatives
In their ‘natural’ state, milks and yogurts are nutritious foods with a low GI. However, not everyone likes the au natural flavour of plain milks and yogurts, so food manufacturers add ingredients to appeal to a broader range of tastes and this can affect the GI and calorie count. Milk alternatives like soy, rice and oat milks don’t contain lactose and have different proteins and fats which is why their GI values range from low (soy milks) to high (rice milks). These plant-based milks are not naturally a good source of calcium, so look for calcium-fortified ones.

The key problem for us today with milk and milk alternatives is the amount and type of fats they contain. Mammal milk fat is predominantly saturated fat, so reduced or low fat versions are better choices for most of us (not kids under two). Milk alternatives can be a better choice from a cholesterol perspective because their fats are unsaturated. But choosing reduced fat versions is still going to be better for your waistline as unsaturated fats have the same number of calories as saturated fats.

Adding large quantities of sugar to flavoured milks and yogurts (and alternatives) of all kinds can increase their glycemic load and calories. So, products with no added sugar are going to be a better choice. The GI Foundation has developed the following guidelines for choosing healthy low GI milks, yogurts and alternatives:

Milk fluid and dried (as reconstituted) and dairy drinks

• Fat: 2g per 100g or less, or 2-4g per 100 g, provided that saturated fat is less than or equal to 20% of total fat
• Calcium: 100mg per 100g or more

Examples: Dairy farmers Light White, Skim Milk and Just Natural Malt, Honey and Chocolate (99% fat free milk), Sustagen (vanilla and chocolate).



Soy and alternative beverages

• Fat: 3.5g per 100g or less, or 2-4g per 100g, provided that saturated fat is less than or equal to 20% of total fat
• Calcium: 100mg per 100g or more

Example: So Natural® Calci Forte.



Yogurt, or soy yogurt

• Fat: 2g per 100g or less, or 2-4g per 100g, provided that saturated fat is less than or equal to 20% of total fat
• Energy: less than or equal to 35 kJ per 100g
• Calcium: 100mg per 100g or more

Examples: Brownes Fresh 'n Fruity® Yogurt, Nestle All Natural 99% Fat Free Yogurt and Nestle Diet Yogurt.





For more information about the GI Symbol Program
Dr Alan W Barclay, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Glycemic Index Foundation (Ltd)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Mob: +61 (0)416 111 046
Fax: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Email: alan@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update

GI Q&A with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller



‘I’ve read that dairy products cause an increase in insulin secretion. Their GI is around 25–50 but their insulin index is three times higher. Is this a problem? ’
All protein foods (yes that includes meat, fish and eggs) stimulate insulin secretion – that's why you may see them described as being ‘insulinogenic’ to use the technical term. However, the proteins in milk may be more insulinogenic than in other protein foods because they are meant to help baby mammals grow and develop.

One of insulin’s many functions is to act as a growth hormone designed to drive nutrients into cells – not just glucose but also amino acids, the building blocks of new tissue. It is thought that milk may contain a unique combination of amino acids that together are more insulin stimulating than alone. There is no evidence that this either increases your risk of weight gain or lifestyle-related diseases like type 2 diabetes.

The disparity between glucose and insulin response is not unique to dairy foods. We have found that certain sweets and baked products also do this. Chocolate may also contain amino acids that stimulate insulin secretion.

‘I read a paper in Medical Hypotheses by Bodo C. Melnik about the need to avoid dairy foods. It basically said that milk protein consumption is a key factor in promoting most chronic diseases of Western societies. What's your view?’
This viewpoint is not new and I know quite a few people who support it. While all the theory makes sense, it doesn’t stack up in epidemiological studies (which are ‘natural’ experiments). In fact, in Western countries, dairy consumption is often associated with better insulin sensitivity, lower weight gain and lower cardiovascular disease risk (and one mechanism maybe the low GI of most dairy products).

To me, a whole race of people (Caucasians) have a genome that is shaped by milk drinking during our evolutionary past and we have high levels of lactase throughout life because it was such a useful food source. So I find it hard to accept that it’s harmful to Caucasians, even in adulthood. Perhaps, the rest of the human race are not so lucky. But even then, I think of milk as the secretion of the mammary gland designed for growth of a newborn mammal – how could it be both safe at that time and then harmful later? I think we should keep an open mind on this one.

GI testing by an accredited laboratory
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
36 Lombard Street, Suite 100
Toronto, Ontario M5C 2X3 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web www.gilabs.com

Australia
Fiona Atkinson



Research Manager, Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service (SUGiRS)
Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences
Sydney University
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone + 61 2 9351 6018
Fax: + 61 2 9351 6022
Email sugirs@mmb.usyd.edu.au
Web www.glycemicindex.com

See The New Glucose Revolution on YouTube

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Texas: Is the death penalty on death row?

The scene outside the Huntsville unit of the Texas state penitentiary last Wednesday evening was a familiar one.

Police officers stood casually outside the imposing red-brick walls as a small group of passionate opponents of the death penalty railed against a punishment they say has no place in modern America.

Inside, a death row inmate, Hank Skinner, was due to be executed by lethal injection.

On 24 March, Hank Skinner was given a last-minute stay of execution

But with half an hour to go, word emerged that the Supreme Court in Washington had issued a last-minute stay of execution.

Skinner, convicted of the 1993 killing of his girlfriend and her 2 adult sons in Pampa, has always protested his innocence.

His French wife, Sandrine, expressed relief, but spoke of her anger at a process that could still result in her husband's execution.

"This system has got to stop," she told the BBC. "We are not going to stop until it's over."

The death chamber at Huntsville, which carries out all Texas death penalties, is still the busiest in the nation. 24 prisoners were executed last year.

But across Texas, there has been a steep decline in the number of new death sentences handed down. There were just 9 last year. In the late 1990s, as many as 48 people a year were sent to death row.

The statistics have led some campaigners to hope that the death penalty may itself be on death row.

Costly

To the south of Huntsville, Harris County, which includes the sprawling metropolis of Houston, used to be known as the nation's death penalty capital.

But after sending about a dozen murderers to death row each year for a decade, it has been 2 years since it sent a single one.

The county's district attorney, Pat Lycos, rejects the notion that Houston has become a death penalty-free zone.

In an office adorned with photos of Margaret Thatcher, Barry Goldwater and John Wayne, she admits that some things are different.

"What has changed is the availability of life without parole," she says, highlighting a law that came into effect in 2005. Before this, the system offered two options for capital crimes: the death penalty and life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

But there are other factors at work here too. Take cost.

In the countryside west of Houston sits quiet, rural Austin County. Its district attorney, Travis Koehn, is busy enough at the best of times.

But Austin County saw 2 gruesome murders in four months last year. Mr Koehn and his small team have 2 hugely expensive capital murder cases to prosecute. Seeking the death penalty is the costliest option. The impact on the community could be huge.

"This is just like if a hurricane or tornado came through our community or if a 747 crashed outside our town," he says.

Koehn says the current economic crisis will not dictate how he pursues the two cases, but he has yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"We're still going as best we can. We're seeking justice and we're going to do that with what we have."

As he weighs up the pros and cons, he could do worse than heed the words of one former county judge.

"We're all looking at things more closely than we did 40 years ago," says Gene Terry, executive director of the Texas Association of Counties.

Mr Terry says lawyers are better trained and juries harder to please. He puts some of this down to what he calls "the CSI effect", by which jurors make unfavourable comparisons between what they see in the courtroom and the sort of forensics they watch on popular TV shows.

The dramatised version may be highly unrealistic, but "it makes juriesmore demanding", Mr Terry says.

Religious opposition

Better training. Smarter juries. Life without parole. And economic difficulties. But is there perhaps one more reason why the death penalty is on the wane?

Texas itself is changing. Its huge and growing Latino population opposes the death penalty on religious grounds. Americans of all stripes have moved here from other parts of the country too.

In this less homogenous environment, the old certainties are being more widely questioned.

But old habits die hard in Texas and the death penalty will not be disappearing any time soon. Back in a cafe in rural Bellville, Harley Thomason puts me straight.

"It's a zero-tolerance state," he says. "They'll just kill you in the state of Texas if you mess up."

Source: BBC News, March 30, 2010

California death sentences rise as U.S. total falls

As the number of death sentences declined nationwide in 2009, death verdicts in California rose to their highest total in nearly a decade, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday.

All but 5 of the 29 California death sentences last year were handed down in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, the ACLU said.

Only 2 of the death sentences came from Bay Area courts, both in Contra Costa County. Darryl Kemp was sentenced in June for a 1978 rape and murder in Lafayette, a case in which he was identified through DNA evidence in 2000, and Edward Wycoff was condemned in December for murdering his sister and her husband in the couple's El Cerrito home in 2006.

Nationally, death sentences fell to 106 in 2009, their seventh straight year of decline and the lowest total since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to an earlier report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a separate organization.

ACLU leaders attributed the decline to public concerns about wrongful convictions and the high costs of capital punishment.

"All California communities would be better served if California opted for permanent imprisonment as a safe and cost-effective alternative to the death penalty," said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

The group cited a state commission's 2008 report that said capital punishment was costing California $137 million a year. It would cost another $95 million a year to cut appeals times to the national average, the panel said.

The California District Attorneys Association disputed the report's conclusion that abolishing the death penalty would bring major cost savings. The association's executive director, Scott Thorpe, also questioned the ACLU's report Tuesday.

Rather than focusing on one year's statistics, Thorpe said, "you have to look at a number of years to determine what is a trend or an aberration."

He noted that death sentences had averaged fewer than 20 a year statewide in the four years before 2009. He also observed that last year's total was well below the 41 death sentences issued in 1999, the most since California reinstated its death penalty law in 1977.

The ACLU report, based on state records, pointed to one long-term trend, an increase in the number of blacks and Latinos on death row. They accounted for more than 65 % of the death sentences in 2009 and make up more than 58 % of the condemned prisoners in the state, compared with 44 % of the general population, the report said.

California has the largest death row of any state with 701 prisoners, more than 1/5 of the nation's total.

A federal judge halted executions in the state in February 2006 and said California's lethal injection methods were so sloppy and poorly monitored that they could subject a dying inmate to prolonged and excruciating pain. State prison officials are preparing to submit revised procedures to the judge.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2010

ACLU report: Los Angeles County sentences more inmates to death than Texas

Los Angeles County leads most of the nation in death row justice, trumping even Texas in the number of inmates who received capital punishment last year, according to an ACLU report released Tuesday.

With 13 death sentences, Los Angeles County sent two more criminals to death row than Texas, which leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Only Florida, with 14 capital sentences, and California itself, which led the country with 29, had more.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Golden State - with Southern California bearing the brunt of death penalty sentences - lags behind a nation moving toward permanent imprisonment rather than lethal injection for the worst offenders.

"Nationwide, we are seeing a shift due to growing concerns about the wrongful conviction of innocent people and the high costs of the death penalty in comparison," said Natasha Minsker author of the report from the ACLU office in San Francisco.

While some criticized the report for its methodology - such as failing to account for the size of L.A. County and the violence of some of its criminals - others praised District Attorney Steve Cooley for pursuing the toughest punishment.

"I am in favor of Mr. Cooley's aggressive prosecution," said LaWanda Hawkins, founder of Justice for Murdered Children, a victims rights group in San Pedro, whose only son Reginald was gunned down during a carjacking. "We should give them the sentences they are due.

"There has to be some form of punishment."

Coincidentally, the ACLU report was issued the same day that serial killer Rodney Alcala was condemned to death for the 3rd time in Orange County for murdering four women and a 12-year-old girl in the L.A. region.

Among its findings:

California sentenced more felons to death in 2009 than in the 7 previous years.

Three counties - L.A., Orange and Riverside - accounted for 83 % of the state's death sentences but just 41 percent of its population.

Blacks, representing 7 % of California, comprise 35 % of the nearly 700 inmates on death row, while the proportion of Latinos condemned to to die for their crimes has grown.

The civil-rights advocacy group said the nation's largest death penalty system costs California taxpayers $137 million a year, with some cases like Alcala's taking decades to complete, through numerous trials and appeals.

In the next 5 years, it said, California is poised to spend $1 billion on its death penalty, including $400 million to build new death row facilities at San Quentin State Prison.

The last inmate executed in California was Clarence Ray Allen, 76, convicted of ordering the murders of three people in Fresno. On Jan. 17, 2006, the supposedly disabled, deaf and blind convict walked from his wheelchair to the gurney, where he received a lethal injection.

The ACLU blamed prosecutors such as Cooley, who have full discretion whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison for the most heinous of criminals.

"He's a politician. He's looking to run for attorney general. The death penalty is a political issue," said James Clark of the ACLU office in Los Angeles. "It's one factor of L.A. being so out of step with the rest of the country." But Cooley issued a statement citing Alcala's crimes - including the torture and sexual assault of his victims - as one example of the need for capital punishment.

"Anyone who doubts the appropriateness and necessity of the death penalty should acquaint themselves with Rodney James Alcala," Cooley said. "Society has suffered by his presence."

Robert Kaufman, a conservative professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, was critical of the ACLU report.

He said the organization has advocated legal procedures that have made it extremely difficult - and costly - to prosecute death penalty cases. And now it argues that cost is one reason to abolish the death penalty.

"Their conclusions go way beyond the conclusion of the data," he said. "I'm very dubious about its methodology, of them comparing California, Texas and Florida.

"It's not surprising we're going to have more capital cases, because we have more population (and) more violent offenders."

In its report, the ACLU raised questions about the growing number of Latinos sentenced to death, most of them in L.A. and Orange counties.

Of last year's death sentences, 31 % were Latino - double the rate of 2001. Still, Latinos comprise 37 % of the state's population.

"The increasing number of Latinos sentenced to death raises questions about the choices made by district attorneys in charging death penalty cases, and the composition of juries in these cases," the report said.

But Kaufman said the report fails to take into account the severity of each crime.

"It may not be politically correct, but it may be that certain people are committing more violent crimes than others," Kaufman said. "Maybe there are more Latinos (sentenced to death) because more Latinos committed violent crimes.

"We don't know from the data."

Source: ACLU, March 31, 2010