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3 vile myths too many food companies are shoving down our throats. Gross.

You've probably seen ads from food corporations like this before. But do you have any idea what they're really trying to sell you on?

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Only Organic - New MacDonald - Q2 2015
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A growing number of food corporations are spending big bucks to pump out messaging that suggests they're worried about the health of our planet and that we need their help and the help of chemicals to produce the food to sustain it.

Myth #1: We need technology like genetic engineering and pesticides to grow more food.

While using technology to help grow and engineer food sounds like a good idea, the reality is much much worse.

"Getting on board means farmers stop practices that keep soil healthy and go for single crops. Livestock that used to be raised on the farm get crammed into polluting factories. To keep this unnatural system going, these farmers now buy expensive inputs all from ever-fewer corporations demanding ever-rising prices. ... Pests become resistant, so you've got to use more chemicals. Livestock becomes sicker, so you've got to use more drugs. Soil loses its natural fertility, so you've got to use more chemical fertilizer.
***
And the future we're all talking about feeding? The industrial farm requires more fossil fuels, water, and mined minerals. All stuff that will only get more expensive as it runs out. So down the line, the chemical path not only can't only work for farmers, it won't be a choice at all. Corporate agriculture doesn't reliably grow more food in the future or even today."



Myth #2 : Food corporations are working hand in hand with farmers.


"Over the last 50 years millions of farmers have had to sign corporate contracts that dictate their every move or have lost their farms all together."

Many of these corporations want you to believe they're working with farmers to help them sustain healthy family businesses. In reality, farmers and their families are being bullied to buy into corporate-controlled chemical agriculture. Because these corporations have lots of money and government backing on their side, most farmers don't have a choice. They can either play ball, or their farm will fail.

Myth #3: We need to double food production in order to feed the planet by 2050.

Some mega-corporations would like you to believe that without their help and reliance on chemical engineering, our planet is doomed. But that's not actually the truth.

"The sustainable farm is better for farmers and the environment, but can it really feed the world? Study after study is saying yes. Sustainable farms produce as well and, in drought years, even better. This is important news for small farmers, who already grow 70% of the world's food. To increase production, they don't have to follow the chemical path."

It's time we wise up and stop letting these shady corporations scare us into thinking it's their way or no way at all. The truth is, we can feed and sustain our planet without using harmful chemicals or stiffing small farmers and their families.

Family

'It's not Little Sun': Mom admits she's having trouble pronouncing her newborn's name

It was fine 'til other people tried to say it and now she's confused.

via JustusMoms29/TikTok (used with permission)

Justus Stroup is starting to realize her baby's name isn't that common.

One of the many surprises that come with parenthood is how the world reacts to your child’s name. It’s less of a surprise if your child has a common name like John, Mohammed, or Lisa. But if you give your child a non-traditional name that’s gender-neutral, you’re going to throw a lot of folks off-guard and mispronunciations are going to be an issue.

This exact situation happened with TikTok user Justus Stroup, who recently had her second child, but there’s a twist: she isn’t quite sure how to pronounce her child’s name either. "I may have named my daughter a name I can't even pronounce," Stroup opens the video. "Now, I think I can pronounce it, but I've told a couple of people her name and there are two people who thought I said the same exact thing. So, I don't know that I know how to [pronounce] her name correctly."


@justusmoms29

Just when you think you name your child something normal! #2under2mom #postpartum #newborn #momsoftiktok #uniquenames #babyname #babygirl #sahm #momhumor

Stroup’s daughter is named Sutton and the big problem is how people around her pronounce the Ts. Stroup tends to gloss over the Ts, so it sounds like Suh-en. However, some people go hard on the Ts and call her “Sut-ton.”

"I'm not gonna enunciate the 'Ts' like that. It drives me absolutely nuts," she noted in her TikTok video. "I told a friend her name one time, and she goes, 'Oh, that's cute.' And then she repeated the name back to me and I was like, 'No, that is not what I said.'"

Stroup also had a problem with her 2-year-old son’s speech therapist, who thought the baby’s name was Sun and that there weren’t any Ts in the name at all. "My speech therapist, when I corrected her and spelled it out, she goes, 'You know, living out in California, I have friends who named their kids River and Ocean, so I didn't think it was that far off.'"

Stroup told People that she got the name from a TV show called “The Lying Game,” which she used to watch in high school. "Truthfully, this was never a name on my list before finding out I was pregnant with a girl, but after finding out the gender, it was a name I mentioned and my husband fell in love with," says Stroup. "I still love the name. I honestly thought I was picking a strong yet still unique name. I still find it to be a pretty name, and I love that it is gender neutral as those are the type of names I love for girls."

The mother could choose the name because her husband named their son Greyson.



The commenters thought Stroup should tell people it’s Sutton, pronounced like a button. “I hear it correctly! Sutton like Button. I would pronounce it like you, too!” Amanda wrote.

“My daughter’s name is Sutton. I say it the same way as you. When people struggle with her name, I say it’s Button but with a S. That normally immediately gets them to pronounce it correctly,” Megan added.

After the video went viral, Stroup heard from people named Hunter and Peyton, who are dealing with a similar situation. “I've also noticed the two most common names who run into the same issue are Hunter (people pronouncing it as Hunner or HUNT-ER) and Payton (pronounced Pey-Ton or Pey-tin, most prefer it as Pey-tin),” she told Upworthy.

“Another person commented saying her name is Susan and people always think it is Season or Steven,” Stroup told Upworthy. After having her second child, she learned that people mix up even the simplest names. “No name is safe at this point,” she joked.

The whole situation has Stroup rethinking how she pronounces her daughter’s name. Hopefully, she got some advance on how to tell people how to pronounce it, or else she’ll have years of correcting people in front of her. "Good lord, I did not think this was going to be my issue with this name," she said.

This article originally appeared last year.

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Parenting

Texas couple sparks debate after charging 19-year-old daughter $200 a month in rent

“How do you feel about making your adult children pay rent to live at home?” they asked.

via Bar7Ranch/TikTok and Alex Block/Unsplash

Cody and Erika Archie decide how much to chage their daughter in rent.

A couple in Gatesville, Texas, have started an interesting debate on TikTok over whether it's right for them to charge their 19-year-old daughter rent to live with them after graduating high school. Ranchers Erika and Cody Archie, who go by Bar7Ranch on TikTok, have a million followers on the platform where they post videos documenting life on a ranch.

Their daughter, Kylee Archie, graduated high school in May of 2022, and on June 1, she started paying her parents $200 a month in rent. She decided not to attend college, so she was planning to stay home for a while.

“Our thought together is that since [Kylee] has graduated, I told her... I been telling her, ‘June the first, our rent's due if you continue to live here,"' Cody, who is a bit more strict than his wife, said in the viral video.

“I thought that was a little harsh, I mean, maybe a little leeway,” Erika added. “200 bucks a month is plenty cheap to live like a grub in your parents' house,” Cody continued. “That's cheaper than she eats in food," the mother added. “We think it teaches them a good lesson in paying bills.”

How do you feel about making your adult children pay rent to live at home? 

@bar7ranch

How do you feel about making your adult children pay rent to live at home? This is a REPOST from last year but since its on Fox Business News right now we thought we’d chat about it again! #Parenting #ParentsChargingRent #AdultChildren #DryHumor #Sarcasm #MarriageHumor #Marriage #CoupleTok #RanchTok #AgTok #KeepRanchin #KingOfTikTok #RanchLife #Ranch

Understanding that the issue might stir controversy, the couple asked its followers if they agreed. “How do you feel about making your adult children pay rent to live at home?” they captioned the video.

The responses were a mixed bag of pros and cons. Some thought it was a good idea because it teaches responsibility and prevents kids from doing nothing because they’re being enabled. "Responsibility is always a great lesson!" James Jackson wrote. "Collect rent, then give it back when they move out," John Deere added.

Others think that the world is hard enough and that it's the parents' job to support their kids, no matter what. "Nope, my son is 23, and we don't charge him. He works and helps around the house...but life is hard enough and not gonna charge my kid," Shelly wrote. "No, because I wanted them to save money to get out faster. If they are paying me, they aren't saving to get out," Tammy Lynn Ballard wrote.

"A definite no for me… I know it’s rare, but I will forever help my kids… no matter the age," Chief's Wife 101 wrote. "No one ever said we wouldn’t be here to help our kids forever," the Archies responded.

The Archies' situation isn’t unique. As of July 2022, 50% of adults in America aged 18 to 29 were living with their parents. But should they be required to pay rent? A majority of Americans say they should. A recent poll of 15000 Americans found that 57% say adult children living with their parents should have to pay rent.

One of the biggest balancing acts of parenting is deciding whether you give your kids too much or too little. An old saying may help people in a similar situation: You should give your kids enough so they can do something but not so much that they do nothing. That goes both ways, giving your kids too much help will make them dependent, so they don’t have the fire in their bellies to become successful. However, a kid who gets too little may not have the resources to pursue their goals in the first place.


This story originally appeared two years ago.

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Health

How often should you wash your sheets? Experts settle the debate once and for all.

People have all kinds of opinions on this.

Kampus Production/Canva

How often do you change your sheets?

If you were to ask a random group of people, "How often do you wash your sheets?" you'd likely get drastically different answers. There are the "Every single Sunday without fail" folks, the "Who on Earth washes their sheets weekly?!?" people and everyone in between.

According to a survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by Mattress Advisor, the average time between sheet changings or washings in the U.S. is 24 days—or every 3 1/2 weeks, approximately. The same survey revealed that 35 days is the average interval at which unwashed sheets are "gross."

Some of you are cringing at those stats while others are thinking, "That sounds about right." But how often should you wash your sheets, according to experts?

Hint: It's a lot more frequent than 24 days.

While there is no definitive number of days or weeks, most experts recommend swapping out used sheets for clean ones every week or two.

Dermatologist Alok Vij, MD told Cleveland Clinic that people should wash their sheets at least every two weeks, but probably more often if you have pets, live in a hot climate, sweat a lot, are recovering from illness, have allergies or asthma or if you sleep naked.

We shed dead skin all the time, and friction helps those dead skin cells slough off, so imagine what's happening every time you roll over and your skin rubs on the sheets. It's normal to sweat in your sleep, too, so that's also getting on your sheets. And then there's dander and dust mites and dirt that we carry around on us just from living in the world, all combining to make for pretty dirty sheets in a fairly short period of time, even if they look "clean."

Maybe if you shower before bed and always wear clean pajamas you could get by with a two-week sheet swap cycle, but weekly sheet cleaning seems to be the general consensus among the experts. The New York Times consulted five books about laundry and cleaning habits, and once a week was what they all recommend.

Sorry, once-a-monthers. You may want to step up your sheet game a bit.

What about the rest of your bedding? Blankets and comforters and whatnot?

Sleep.com recommends washing your duvet cover once a week, but this depends on whether you use a top sheet. Somewhere between the Gen X and Millennial eras, young folks stopped being about the top sheet life, just using their duvet with no top sheet. If that's you, wash that baby once a week. If you do use a top sheet, you can go a couple weeks longer on the duvet cover.

For blankets and comforters and duvet inserts, Sleep.com says every 3 months. And for decorative blankets and quilts that you don't really use, once a year washing will suffice.

What about pillows? Pillowcases should go in with the weekly sheet washing, but pillows themselves should be washed every 3 to 6 months. Washing pillows can be a pain, and if you don't do it right, you can end up with a lumpy pillow, but it's a good idea because between your sweat, saliva and skin cells, pillows can start harboring bacteria.

Finally, how about the mattress itself? Home influencers on TikTok can often be seen stripping their beds, sprinkling their mattress with baking soda, brushing it into the mattress fibers and then vacuuming it all out. Architectural Digest says the longer you leave baking soda on the mattress, the better—at least a few hours, but preferably overnight. Some people add a few drops of essential oil to the baking soda for some extra yummy smell.

If that all sounds like way too much work, maybe just start with the sheets. Pick a day of the week and make it your sheet washing day. You might find that climbing into a clean, fresh set of sheets more often is a nice way to feel pampered without a whole lot of effort.


This article originally appeared last year.

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Family

Irish girl with rare heart condition was given 24 hours to live. Six months later, she's home.

Callie is the only person in the UK to be diagnosed with the genetic condition.

Photo credit: Belfast Live

Little Callie was given 24 hours to live. Now she's enjoying life back home.

For her first year of life, Callie McKinney of County Down, Northern Ireland was a healthy, happy baby. Then she had a heart attack out of nowhere.

Doctors at the hospital told her parents that she suffered extensive brain damage and gave Callie about 24 to 48 hours left to live. After over six months of treatment, she’s finally back home and seemingly living the normal toddler life.

"We were told that Callie would be severely brain damaged as a result of what she went through and would essentially have no quality of life going forward,” said Caitlin Turner, Callie’s mom, to Belfast Live. “But the resilience that she has shown is nothing short of a miracle as now she is laughing, sitting up, eating and learning to walk and finally getting back to the normal life that she used to have.”

Little girl with a medical device up her nose, smiling outside on her parent's lapCallie is living each minute to her fullest.Photo credit: Belfast Live

The online comments have been encouraging:

“Callie is a wee fighter. 👏👏👏💙”

“What a beautiful smile, wishing her all the love in the world.”

“Great to hear some good news for a change.”

Callie was diagnosed with inorganic pyrophosphatase 2 (PPA2), a very rare genetic condition that triggers cardiac arrest suddenly, usually triggered through viral infection or ingestion of alcohol. In order to provide instant help should she experience a cardiac issue, Callie had a defibrillator surgically implanted in her heart.

Baby girl in hospital bed with a teddy bear and oxygen mask.Callie was hospitalized for over six months, but is finally home after extensive treatment.Photo credit: Belfast Live

Due to its rarity, there haven't been many studies regarding PPA2. PPA2 is so rare that Callie is currently the only person in the United Kingdom diagnosed with the affliction. The only reason Callie’s PPA2 was diagnosed was due to one of the doctors performing a genetics test while Callie was fighting for her life. Had Callie died, her cause of death would’ve been classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

An August 2023 study of PPA2 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York had trouble collecting data. Not just because the condition is so rare that they had such a small sample size to study the condition, but out of 59 people diagnosed with PPA2 in the study, only 10 were living. Usually PPA2 isn’t diagnosed until it is too late or a young person has survived a cardiac event like Callie did. PPA2 usually goes undiagnosed unless a genetic test is done to children who had a sibling that passed away from it, such as with two children in the United States and Australia.

These survivors are fighting and it’s inspiring that they continue to make the most out of life, especially since they risk triggering a heart attack from even minor viral infections. It reminds those that aren’t diagnosed with PPA2 take certain things for granted as they continue to fight to enjoy each bit of laughter they can experience.

Nurse with a child patient at a hospitalWe can all help young children fight for their health, no matter how rare the condition.Photo credit: Canva


If you are interested in helping provide more support for survivors and study into PPA2, Callie’s mom is planning to run the Belfast City Marathon to provide funding and support to the Children’s Heartbeat Trust. You can also learn more about PPA2 and other similar heart conditions through the SADS Foundation, along with providing a donation should you be in the position to do so. These children are fighting to stay alive and fighting for every minute, but the cool thing is that they don’t need to fight alone.
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Joy

17 people share the most tragic name they've ever encountered in real life

"I’m in healthcare, and the worst name I’ve seen on a kid is Meatball."

via Canva/Photos

A woman is shocked by someone's name.

We live in an era where many parents want their children to have unique names to stand out. Studies show that uncommon names have gained popularity since the 1950s because American culture has become more individualistic. “As American culture has become more individualistic, parents have favored giving children names that help them stand out – and that means more unique names and fewer common names,” psychology professor Twenge told the BBC.

Recently, there’s been an added twist to the trend of parents electing more unique names: search engine optimization. In today’s world, where everything is online, it can be harder to stand out in search or on social media if you have a common name. Good luck finding someone with a name like Chris Smith or Mohammed Singh on LinkedIn.

The problem is that having a unique name is good, but if it comes off as too strange, it can cause real problems in life. Studies show that people with names too out of the ordinary have a harder time getting a job interview or finding romantic relationships.


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A viral Reddit thread is hilarious and sad because people shared the worst names they have ever heard in real life. Many are funny, but unfortunately, those people have had to live their lives having people constantly making fun of their names. We made a list of the 17 most “tragic” names, and here they are.

1. A very predictable name

"I once met a girl named Cliche."

2. A 2-time unfortunate name

"I had a customer named Dick Butts. I thought it was a joke, but one of the employees asked to see his driver's license and it was truly his name."

"Just introduce yourself as Richard at that point."

3. Clueless parents

"In elementary school, there was a boy named Famous. His younger sister was Fashion."

"Is his mom a youtube vlogger mom? its sounds like it."

"Parents must have been David Bowie fans."


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4. Tasty food, bad name

"I’m in healthcare and the worst name I’ve seen on a kid is Meatball."

"I am Meatball, son of Meatloaf. You ate my father. Prepare to die."

5. Don't feed her after midnight

"An 80+ year old lady called Gremlin."

"If I met someone as a kid, or even now named Gremlin... I definitely want to hang out for a moment or two. As a kid with a weird name, there is some camaraderie there."

6. The prophetic name

"Messiahiscoming is, by far, the worse I've heard. It's beyond ridiculous. She was 12-14 years old and said nothing. Mother did all the talking."

"That's less of a name and more of a threat..."


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7. Pick a winner

"Met an elderly man with the name Booger."

"I have a three-month-old son that I call booger, and now I wonder if that will stick his whole life."

8. Come again?

"Once at work, I met a guy whose first name was Greg, which is not all that bad. The only thing is, is his last name was also Greg."

"In Australia, our education minister is the Honourable Grace Grace. I laugh every time."

9. Seagent Sergent

"In the military, there was this guy called Richard (Dick) Sergeant. Who was a Staff Sergeant. So his name was Staff Sergeant Dick Sergeant. He owned it though so good for him."

"In real life I knew a Sergeant Sergeant, a Major Major, and a Captain Captain."


Drill Sergeant GIFfrom Drill Sergeant GIFs


10. Take the whole bottle

"Clindamycin. Yes, spelled exactly the same way as the antibiotic. When questioned, the mom said, 'I just thought it was pretty.'"

"Friend from Eastern Kentucky knows a Syphilis but pronounced Si-Phillis. Her parents said the same thing that 'It sounded pretty.'"

11. It burns!

"My mom had a coworker who named her child Tequila."

"A friend I had said she met a lady that named her 3 daughters Tequila, Margarita, and Chardonnay."

"Got a missing child alert recently (he’s fine now, thankfully) for a kid named Whiskey. Not Whiskey, Wiskey. Couldn’t even bother to spell it right. Poor kid."

12. Did he play for Milwaukee?

"My sister's sister in law named her son Brewer literally because they are alcoholics."

"I know a boy named Blayze because his parents are dumb dumb potheads."


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13. Jump, Jump

"My dad's coworker is named Chris Cross. Edit: we are from west Texas. I've only know one other person with the same name."

"He was more into Saaaaaaailn.'"

14. Rock on, Ricky

"I taught a kid whose real name is Ricky Rock n’ Roll Smith."

"Sounds like a '90s WWF wrestler name."

15. Say that again?

"Guy named Ashley Hole who went by Ash."


Huh Hmm GIFfrom Huh GIFs


16. Can I buy a vowel?

"Cts. Parents were immigrants and chose random letters for an English name without knowing about vowels and consonants."

"So, the name is basically the sound a beer can makes when cracked open?"

17. Say it 3 times and he'll appear

"My brother went to school with a kid named William William William."

"Will Will Will, what do we have here?"

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