We developed a rattle in the car on our Parent's Weekend trip. We have 1,000 miles to go until the car is out of warranty. So this week I had to take the car to the dealer. I sat in the service department waiting room and read while they tore apart the dashboard looking for the rattle. There were two articles that are worth mentioning.

One had the headline, "Are trans fats the worst fats?" The article states that almost all experts agree that trans fats are bad. What the experts can't agree on is which is worse, trans fats or saturated fat. A new study at Wake Forest University shows that "trans fats may cause redistribution of fat tissue into the abdomen (the worst place to store fat for both health and appearance) and lead to higher body weight, even when total calories are the same."

It is curious to me that if "all" experts agree that trans fats are bad, then why are they in almost every bread, cracker, cereal, and pastry sold in grocery stores. Of course, if you follow the BTD and eat only beneficial oils, you don't have to worry about trans fat research.

The second article was about Vitamin D. Researchers have decided that the current RDA of 400 IU is just barely enough to prevent rickets. The government will re-examine the RDA in 2008, and could well raise it to 1,000 IU.

The reason for the change is the long list of diseases that research has linked to Vitamin D deficiency.

18 types of cancer are associated with lack of Vitamin D.

Adequate Vitamin D may cut the risk of colon cancer in half.

Prostate cancer occurs in men who work indoors 4 years earlier than in men who work outdoors.

Breast, lung, bladder, esophageal, gastric, ovarian, rectal, renal, uterine, cervical, gallbladder, laryngeal, oral, pancreatic, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Hodgkin's lymphoma are cancers associated with low Vitamin D.

Children who took 2000 IU of Vitamin D per day had an 80% lower risk of developing diabetes according to a study in Finland. Women with Multiple sclerosis who took 1000 IU of Vitamin D per day had a measurable improvement in their immune system attacks.

My multiple vitamin contains 400 IU. That may be enough in the spring summer and fall when I spend a lot of time in the sun. But now that cold weather is coming and I'm exercising more indoors, I'm going to increase my Vitamin D. I had been cautioned about Vitamin D toxicity so often in my health nut years, that I consciously avoided buying calcium supplements with Vitamin D added. That decision just got reversed.

By the way, it took 3 ½ hours, but they found and fixed the rattle in the car.