Half of all young Australians are likely to be overweight by 2025, so Australian doctors are calling for nationwide bans on school junk-food vending machines; desert fund-raising drives; unhealthy food in school cafeterias; and junk-food advertising aimed at children.

The diffienciency of vitamin D has been found to be the leading cause of osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency is affecting 10 million Americans. Experts say osteoporosis will become more prevalent unless more vitamin D is taken by the average person, especially men and women over 50. Deficiency of Vitamin D can also cause insomnia and arthritis. The best source of vitamin D is sunshine. Depending whether your skin is light or dark, 15 to 30 minutes of sun exposure in mid morning or late afternoon is the best supplement. Egg yolks, enriched soy and rice milks, margarines and breakfast cereals are some of the foods that also provide vitamin D.

The pesticide methyl bromide destroys ozone and causes convulsions, neuromuscular and cognitive problems -- even death -- in farm workers and others directly exposed to it. It also causes unknown damage to children who attend schools near fields where the pesticide is used, and equally uknown damage to people who eat foods grown with the pesticide. The U.S. has signed an international treaty banning all but the most critical uses by 2005, yet the government is working hard to allow exemptions that keep the poison in use indefinitely.

Americans currently buy about $14.5 billion worth of organic food per year. That represents only two percent of total food and beverage sales, but it's growing fast.

Simply eating a specific food could permanently change your behavior for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia, Huntington's or cancer. In recent tests, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behavior was permanent. The amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed, raising the idea that the right food might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness.