Pumped? Make sure you get the most from your exercise routine: Switch to decaf. Swiss researchers have found that the caffeine in only two cups of coffee can cut by 22 percent the body's ability to increase blood flow to the heart during workouts--one goal of any cardiovascular exercise. The study

subjects were young people so researchers suspect that the effect might be more dramatic in older people, especially those with heart problems. "My advice: Do not drink coffee before doing physical activities," says researcher Philipp A. Kaufmann, MD, whose report appears in the January 17, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Organic Payoff Organic farming in China and India is booming. Chinese and Indian farmers who have switched to eco-friendly agriculture earn more money, have a higher standard of living and face fewer health risks, said researchers from the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development in January 2005. Organic farming offers a way out of poverty for many in China and India, the researchers concluded, but only if their governments make sure to include poor farmers in programs to encourage organics. Right now, the researchers said, most of the government subsidies and other incentives go to the biggest farmers--just as in the United States.

Vroom, Vroom Collectively, motorcycles emit three times more carbon monoxide and a "disproportionately high" amount of other air pollutants compared to cars, reports a Swiss study in the January 1, 2006 issue of Environmental Science & Technology. Because motorcycles aren't a major form of transportation in industrialized countries, the environmental impact of their emissions "has been underestimated ... giving manufacturers little motivation to improve," write the researchers. For instance, emissions standards for motorcycles in the United States remained the same for 25 years until the US Environmental Protection Agency began enforcing stricter limits in January. But the new regulations--which should cut emissions by 54,000 tons per year--don't take full effect until 2010.

Barley Boom The US Food and Drug Administration is allowing barley-based breakfast cereals and other foods containing the grain to boast that eating them helps lower the risk of heart disease. Why? Barley is high in fat-flushing soluble fiber and low in fat. For a product to carry the claim, it must contain at least 0.75 grams of soluble barley per serving. Until now, there have been few barley-based products on the market. Exceptions include Arrowhead Mills' Bits O Barley Hot Cereal and the caffeine-free coffee substitute Postum. But consumers can expect their supermarkets to stock more heart-healthy barley products--whole-grain flakes, grits, meal and flour--now that the claim has been approved.

Sick Hospital Food Eighteen of the most prestigious hospitals in the United States still serve foods fried in artery-clogging partially hydrogenated oil--so-called trans fat--even as Chick-fil-A, Ruby Tuesday and other franchise restaurants are switching to more healthful alternatives. That's the finding of a survey of french fries sold in such hospitals as UCLA Medical Center, St. Louis Children's Hospital, University of Chicago Hospital and Seattle's University of Washington Medical Center. "While french fries will never be a health food," the Center for Science in the Public Interest stated when it released the survey in February 2006, "hospitals could at least make them safer for their patients' hearts and arteries by frying in canola, soy, peanut or another heart-friendly oil."

Fort Knox for Crops Hoping to avert worldwide famine, Norway plans to build a "doomsday" seed vault that will preserve 2 million seeds from virtually all varieties of the world's food crops. The $3 million vault will be located inside a sandstone mountain on the permafrost-covered island of Spitzbergen, just 600 miles from the North Pole. Construction will start in 2007. New Scientist says the project will protect the world's food from "nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels and the ensuing collapse of electricity supplies." Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an international organization that has championed the vault, adds: "If the worst came, this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet."

More Than Five to Stay Alive Most people in developed countries eat about three servings of fruits and vegetables per day--two fewer than the US Department of Agriculture recommends. But even five might not be enough to protect your brain from stroke, reported University of London researchers in the January 28, 2006 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet. People who ate three to five servings cut their risk of stroke by 11 percent--probably because of their increased consumption of potassium, which is found in many fruits and vegetables and lowers blood pressure. But people who ate more than five servings were 26 percent less likely to suffer a stroke. Researcher Graham McGregor, MD, believes that the study--which involved more than 257,000 people in the United States, Europe and Japan--clearly shows that "you should be eating more than five a day."

Big-Cat Contutry The rain forest isn't the only part of Brazil that is threatened. The Pantanal region the world's largest wetlands--is endangered too. Home to jaguars, anteaters and tapirs, the 77,000 square miles of marshes are being deforested so rapidly that they could completely disappear within 45 years. Already, 17 percent of the vegetation has been destroyed as low-lying forests have been cleared, often to make way for beef cattle, reported Conservation International (CI) in January 2006. But CI is working to save Brazil's wetlands, both by offering small grants to farmers who guard the natural vegetation on their land, and also by teaming up with the Jaguar Conservation Fund to maintain 667,000 acres of jaguar habitat.

1.1 billion THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO ARE MALNOURISHED. ALSO: THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO EAT TOO MUCH.

Source: Corporate Accountability International