Campbell soups for kids and some of their other soups are becoming healthier (story that tipped me off). The amount of sodium per serving is being lowered to 480 mg.

Sodium is found in most things you eat and particularly in processed foods. Some products, such as bagels from the Ottawa Bagel Shop have a mere 5 mg of sodium per bagel. I was talking with someone at the shop about this a couple of days ago and he confirmed that the only sodium in their bagels is that which occurs natually in the ingredients. Other bagels, particularly the mass-produced ones, are often made from dough similar to bread dough, and have a much higher sodium content.

Statistics Canada published results of the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) last April that revealed that most Canadian consume much more sodium than is necessary or recommended. The Statistics Canada report quotes the Institute of Medicine recommended daily adequate intakes for sodium as being 1500 mg for someone aged 9 to 50. I blogged about the 2000 mg of sodium that was in a sandwich I bought on an Air Canada flight in December and how unhealthy that was.

My guess is that we’re going to see legislation on sodium levels in food similar to those in Europe introduced sometime in the next year or so.

Kudos to Campbell’s for taking the initiative and doing this voluntarily. Hopefully other food companies will follow their lead and work at making their products a little healthier.

To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

Fidel Castro Ruz

February 18, 2008

That’s taken from a longer message from Cuba’s Commander in Chief on the Granma Internacional website.

So, after 50 years, 81-year old Fidel Castro is stepping down. It’s expected that his younger brother, Raul Castro (he’s 76, by the way), will be nominated by the National Assembly his successor as president.

George W. Bush talked about it while traveling in Rwanda and asked “what does this mean for the people in Cuba?” He views it as a “period of tradition” and urges the international community to world with the Cuban people to build the institutions of democracy. (He also made a comment about “staged elections” by “the Castro bothers”, which I made me giggle given the election fiasco a few years ago in Florida, a state run by George W.’s brother at the time.)

Hopefully, this change bodes well for the people of Cuba.

According to stories on the Globe & Mail’s and Denver Post’s websites this morning, a twelve-year old Girl Scout selling cookies in Colorado was scammed by a couple who gave her a counterfeit $100 bill when they bought a couple of boxes of cookies.  They got the cookies and $93.50 in change and the Girl Scout troop found their whole day’s profits wiped out.

The police have the counterfeit bill now so hopefully they catch the idiots.  A good Samaritan heard about this and donated $100 to the troop, so the sting of the financial loss is lessened.

I hope they choke on their ill-gotten cookies.