I'm emceeing an event for the Daily Journal of Commerce & Commerce Magazine tonite so I have to get out of here by 4:30pm.

Here are a few links about the Mediterranean Diet I wanted to share with you.

First, here is the American Heart Association's take on it:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4644

And here is a link to the Portland chapter of the Alzheimer's Association:

http://www.alzheimers-oregon.org/index.html

The director there is a really knowledgeable gerontologist who I would have loved to include in the story you saw tonite, but his schedule was just too packed. For him, studies like the one I covered today are interesting, although he wants to see it replicated on a much larger scale before he backs any diet carte blanche. He also said the Mediterranean diet is made up of whole, unprocessed foods and heart healthy fats so it makes sense it would show health benefits in general.

And you know Dr. Hassell is a fan of eating this way. He has said to me before that it is an excellent way to reduce your risk for all kinds of disease. Anything that gets us away from processed, sugary, white-carb kinds of foods is a step in the right direction as far as he's concerned.

Any of you follow that diet? Is it 'working' in terms of your health?? Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com.

And this quick note about yesterday's story.. I got an email from an emergency response worker who is worried that in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak.. our 911 system will get completely overwhelmed and grind to a halt. Hadn't considered that, until I got the email. Thanks!!