Reid Is Marshaling Outnumbered Troops From Condo While on Mend

By JEREMY W. PETERS and CARL HULSE

Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate’s Democratic leader, is conducting foreign and domestic policy from his Washington condominium while he recovers from a vicious exercise accident. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Some of the biggest decisions in Washington these days are being made not at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, but in a well-appointed one-bedroom condominium at the Ritz-Carlton on M Street.

From there, Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate’s battered Democratic leader, is conducting foreign and domestic policy while he recovers from a vicious exercise accident that left the sight in one eye imperiled and bones in his face shattered. His right eye was so filled with blood that he underwent extensive surgery on Monday to drain it and have some of the facial bones repaired. The eye may need to be drained again in a second procedure, doctors told him. But he said his vision was returning.

Not one who does very well with idle time, Mr. Reid, 75, still starts every day at 6 a.m., rising from an overstuffed leather recliner in his living room where doctors have told him he should sleep. They do not want him lying down in bed and rolling over, possibly reinjuring his face.

It is just a short walk from the living room to his den, where he takes a seat at the same desk he once used as a lawyer in Las Vegas and starts making calls. Several pairs of white orchids, a get-well and get-back-to-the-Capitol present from Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, sit next to his phone.

All month, he has been glued to that phone while huddling with senior staff members who shuffle in and out of the condo. He orchestrated his party’s maneuvering to delay the passage of the Keystone XL pipeline bill that cleared the Senate on Thursday. Now he is plotting his party’s approach to a contentious Department of Homeland Security funding bill that is expected to hit the Senate floor next week, complete with provisions that would undo President Obama’s new immigration policy — measures that Democrats vehemently oppose.

"I’m very afraid of what is going on around the world, and we the United States of America are quibbling over funding Homeland Security?" Mr. Reid said, adding that Republicans realized that they would need to relent and send an acceptable bill to the president.

"They know it is a loser for them," he said.

He made time on Wednesday for a call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who was looking for Mr. Reid’s blessing to deliver a speech to Congress in March. The speaking invitation, arranged by Speaker John A. Boehner, has infuriated the White House and congressional Democrats and could be hurting Mr. Netanyahu’s cause with lawmakers.

Mr. Reid sternly but politely told the prime minister — who said he had been advised that Mr. Reid was a "mensch" — as much. But he did not tell the prime minister to cancel the speech.

"I didn’t feel that would be appropriate," he said. "That’s a decision he has to make."

Growing ever restless, the senator is itching to get back to the Capitol. And if all goes as planned, he will be back Monday and gradually start to spend more time there.

During an interview requested by The New York Times, he emphasized that he was physically and mentally sharp.

He and his staff members are determined to show that the injury has not debilitated him as he faces re-election next year — a race that he says he intends to pursue, despite some doubts in the political world.

And after weathering some internal party unrest over his leadership after the steep election losses in November, Mr. Reid does not want anyone to get any ideas about an opening at the top.

In addition, some Democrats, including Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, who is filling in on the floor for Mr. Reid, were initially worried about pushing back too hard against the new Republican majority for fear of being branded with the obstructionist label they applied to Republicans for so long.

"It’s important I get back," Mr. Reid said. "You need someone to be able to say no. That’s the hardest thing to do, you know."

As the first month of the new Congress draws to a close, Mr. Reid said he believed that Democrats were becoming more comfortable with their role — one he hopes is temporary — as a cooperative minority party in the Senate. Democrats made their points on the Keystone bill, he said, but still allowed it to progress without employing all the delaying tactics at their disposal.

"What we have tried to show is that we believe in a Senate that works," Mr. Reid said. "We are letting the Senate operate."

Mr. Reid makes no apologies for his approach, when he ran the Senate, in limiting floor fights like the one that just occurred over the Keystone legislation — a strategy that some in both parties say hurt Democrats in the election.

Mr. Reid said that he had tried a more open process earlier, and that Republicans had taken advantage of it and had shown no real interest in cooperating.

"We went through that ourselves, and we spent weeks and weeks on abortion, and we finally got enough votes to beat that," he said. In any event, he said the measure of the Senate was not in votes on amendments.

"It is a question of, ‘Does the Senate operate?’ " he said. "We are letting the Senate operate."

As for his own abilities, there remain certain things he is not supposed to do, like read, which strains his eyes, or walk outside, where he is more at risk of injury. He has adjusted by listening to audiobooks — he is on his third, a biography of Alan Turing, the British mathematician and Nazi code-breaker — and walking on the basketball court at his gym for an hour a day.

"I’ve already done 50 today," he said, boasting of how many minutes he had walked. "And I’ll do another 15 or so."

He is, however, permanently adjusting to one aspect of his workout routine: He will no longer use the rubber tension bands that have been part of his fitness regimen for years. It was when one of the bands snapped that he was hurtled across the room of his home in Nevada and into a cabinet.

"I damn sure am giving up my bands," he said.

An amateur boxer in his younger days, Mr. Reid has absorbed some blows. But he said this was like nothing he had ever felt.

"I fought for two years, and I got hit pretty hard," he said. "But they were all baby slaps compared to this. I really smashed my face."

'Potentially historic' storm headed for Northeast

Verena Dobnik, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A "potentially historic" storm could dump 2 to 3 feet of snow from northern New Jersey to Connecticut starting Monday, crippling a region that has largely been spared so far this winter, the National Weather Service said.

A blizzard warning was issued for New York and Boston, and the National Weather Service said the massive storm would bring heavy snow and powerful winds starting Monday and into Tuesday.

"This could be a storm the likes of which we have never seen before," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference Sunday.

De Blasio held up a piece of paper showing the city's top 10 snowstorms and said this one could land at the top of a list that goes back to 1872, including the 26.9 inches that fell in 2006. "Don't underestimate this storm. Prepare for the worst," he said as he urged residents to plan to leave work early Monday.

Boston is expected to get 18 to 24 inches of snow, and Philadelphia could see 14 to 18 inches, the weather service said.

A weekend storm that had brought snow and slush to the Northeast — the first real snow of the season for many areas — was just a warm-up.

"Looks like our luck is about to run out," said John Paulsen as he gassed up his SUV in New Jersey. "I can't complain too much since we've had a pretty mild winter, but I don't know if I'm ready for a foot or so of snow all at once."

The storm system driving out of the Midwest brought snow to Ohio on Sunday and was expected to ultimately spread from the nation's capital to Maine for a "crippling and potentially historic blizzard," the National Weather Service said.

The Washington area expected only a coating or a bit more, with steadily increasing amounts expected as the storm plods its way north. The storm promised treacherous travel by both land and air throughout the busy Northeast corridor.

At New York's Penn Station, Cicero Goncalves was waiting for a train to Vermont, where he's going snowboarding, because he expected the flight he had hoped to take would be canceled.

But the 34-year-old flight attendant from Queens counted himself and his travel partner as lucky. "We'll get there before it snows, and we're coming back when the storm is over, on Thursday," he said.

Preparations large and small were in effect elsewhere in New York. A Manhattan Home Depot store sold about twice as many shovels over the weekend as it normally does while transit officials hoping to keep the subways running smoothly planned to use modified subway cars loaded with de-icing fluid to spray the third rail that powers trains.

Farther north, a blizzard warning was issued for Boston from Monday night through early Wednesday. Wind gusts of 60 mph or more are possible on Cape Cod, forecasters said.

Wyatt Baars, manager of the Charlestown Ace Hardware in Boston, sold out of his bags of ice-melting pellets. But he said a New Hampshire distributor is helping him and delivering more.

"Everybody is preparing for the storm," he said. "When we have something this big on the horizon, everybody comes in for the ice melt, snow shovels, snow brooms."

Snow plow driver Al Laplant expected to be out clearing roads of Simsbury, Connecticut, this week, just as he has for more than two decades.

"We'll be out there until the storm's over and then at least three hours after cleaning up," he said as he attended a home show in Hartford. "We'll be out there through the whole storm."

But even for a plow driver, the snow is no cakewalk.

"It's kind of exhilarating," he said. "But at the same time, I've been doing it for 27 years, so I'm kind of tired of it myself."

Searching for Answers in the 1961 Death of an Ayn Rand Follower

By ALEX VADUKUL NY TIMES

　

Joanne O’Connor keeps a three-ring binder as thick as a cinder block to contain the story that echoes through her head. It is stuffed with her research about a young woman she never met who died more than 50 years ago. She has trouble explaining why obsession gripped her so, but she does know: "I had to find out what happened."

Ms. O’Connor is a 61-year-old wedding and events planner who lives with her cat and dog in a small, elegant Kips Bay apartment. Six years ago, she found herself pondering her building’s history, but no one living there remembered much. Nor did her landlord. So she called the Buildings Department while at work one day.

She will never forget the operator’s first words, she says, which set off the investigative odyssey that has consumed her life since.

"Well, she didn’t die there," the man said, "if that’s what you wanted to know."

"Who died where?" she asked.

"The lady," he replied. "She died of a botched abortion. Her name was Vivian Grant." (Picture of Joanne O'Connor at Vivian Grant's grave)

The tragedy involving one of her building’s former tenants occurred in the early 1960s. Most of the characters involved are dead. But at the time, the death of Vivian Grant was widely reported in newspapers across the country. In New York, she shared the front page of The Daily News, smiling primly, in a photo alongside a picture of President John F. Kennedy and headlines on the hijacking of a cruise ship.

Vivian Grant was by most accounts a pretty and ambitious Russian-Jewish 23-year-old from the Bronx who had moved to Manhattan to seize her dreams. But in January 1961 she grew convinced she was pregnant and visited a gynecologist in Queens, Dr. Mandel Friedman. He tried to perform an abortion — then illegal — and she died of an air embolism. The autopsy revealed that she carried no child. "A fatal desperation," read the caption underneath a picture of her in The News.

The story riveted Ms. O’Connor. She raced home to try to learn which of the building’s six apartments Ms. Grant had occupied. In a rickety basement filing cabinet she found an aged ledger and discovered that Ms. Grant was a previous tenant of apartment 2F — her apartment. Ms. O’Connor had been sleeping in Ms. Grant’s former bedroom for years.

"I had been telling myself all day: ‘Not my apartment. It can’t be my apartment,’ " Ms. O’Connor said. "But it was. Somebody was saying hello."

Ms. O’Connor has a penchant for investigation. Her profile photo on Facebook is of Nancy Drew holding a magnifying glass. But Vivian Grant’s story, she says, was different, coming over her "like a force." She has often wondered, "Does Vivian Grant want me to tell her story?"

The coincidences Ms. O’Connor sees, or perhaps chooses to see, are numerous, and she records them diligently, interpreting them as signs that a forgotten story wants to be told. Two years ago, she says, she found Ms. Grant’s last name scrawled on an old piece of tape in a hard-to-reach section of her building’s mailbox. As a teenager she watched "Love With the Proper Stranger," a 1963 movie unrelated to Ms. Grant’s death; in it, Natalie Wood is faced with the decision to have an illegal abortion, and parts were filmed near Kips Bay.

And there’s her cat: a tuxedo she initially had no intention of adopting when she encountered it at a local pet shop five years ago. But weeks passed without anyone buying it, so she took it home. She learned in its release papers that it had been found in the Bronx, a few blocks from Ms. Grant’s childhood home. "This cat was trying to get into my life," Ms. O’Connor said. She named it Vivian Grant.

Joanne O’Connor was born to a nurse and a banker in the Finger Lakes region and, like Ms. Grant, moved to Manhattan to reinvent herself. She has worked as a roller-skating waitress and a hostess at Delmonico’s, and she aspired to be an actress. She is still prone to theatrics, leaping into show tunes during casual conversation. She is now the director of catering and events at the Water Club, where she has worked for 11 years.

After she discovered the dusty ledger, she began spending nights at the library, blurring through old newspaper microfilms and entering a world of "unhelpful librarians." She mined ancestry archives and posted online queries about Ms. Grant’s life on message boards. When she broke a wrist in 2011, she made the best of it, inhabiting a James Stewart in "Rear Window" kind of existence, an invalid who could stay on the phone for three hours on hold. She had many breakthroughs: tracking down the case’s court documents, finding an impassioned letter that Ms. Grant once wrote to a political magazine, and reaching old acquaintances of Ms. Grant as well as Gloria Levine, a first cousin of Vivian’s who lives in Boca Raton, Fla.

Ms. Levine said she had always felt her older cousin’s story fell through the cracks, so she opened up to Ms. O’Connor. "She was gorgeous," she told her over the phone. "Like a movie star. Like a Natalie Wood." From that moment, Ms. O’Connor had a primary source and an avid collaborator.

Vivian Grant was born in 1937 to Anna and Aron Greczka, and her adolescence, Ms. Levine said, was defined by the attention showered upon an only child. Her father owned a beauty salon on Nelson Avenue in the Bronx, and she attended Taft High School. Ms. O’Connor obtained a 1954 Taft yearbook and found Vivian in a class portrait: Dressed in black, she is the only student not smiling. A caption declared her "outstandingly well groomed."

Toward the end of 1960, according to Ms. Levine, Ms. Grant brought an older boyfriend home to meet her parents; it was a pivotal moment in Ms. Grant’s short life.

"There was a huge argument," Ms. Levine said in a recent phone interview. "The parents said, ‘It’s either him or us.’ " Ms. Grant apparently chose him, moving to Manhattan, where she would later start a job as an editor at Dell, the publishing house. According to Ms. Levine, it was one of the last times Ms. Grant’s parents saw their daughter; Mr. Greczka’s hair, she said, turned "white overnight" when his daughter died months later.

It was also in Kips Bay that Ms. Grant was able to fully embrace her passion for the teachings of Ayn Rand, who lived in nearby Murray Hill, famously holding smoke-filled salons for her acolytes, a congregation she dubbed the Collective. A young Alan Greenspan, the future Federal Reserve chairman and a favorite of Rand’s, and Nathaniel Branden, one of her most prominent disciples, would attend. One essay about those times describes how a "typical New York Randian, upon his or her conversion, would leave his parents and find an apartment as close to Rand as possible." The article added that "virtually the entire New York movement" lived within a few square blocks.

Vivian Greczka also changed her name to the more Randian-sounding Vivian Grant, as was customary. Beyond personal accounts of the salon, not much is known of Ms. Grant’s involvement with Rand’s circle; she was most likely Junior Collective and not a part of the circle closest to the author. In any event, it would not be long before her appointment with Dr. Friedman.

One year after Ms. Grant’s death, Dr. Friedman, while out on bail, would perform another fatal abortion, on a woman named Barbara Covington. He was eventually convicted of two counts of manslaughter and sentenced to two to four years. He died in 1980.

But of all the details surrounding Ms. Grant’s death, Ms. Levine said the boyfriend’s identity gnaws at her most: News reports say he took her to Dr. Friedman — indeed, it was reported that the $800 fee for the procedure was returned to him after Ms. Grant’s death. But he was never named.

"Over the years I’ve thought he was a very powerful person because his name was never mentioned in any news articles," Ms. Levine said. She hints darkly that he must have been an influential member of Rand’s inner circle and that members were "sworn to secrecy" after the tragedy. To what extent an intellectual salon in Murray Hill could have manipulated a murder investigation is not clear.

Court documents suggest (in Ms. O’Connor’s reading, at least) that a key witness testified in exchange for anonymity, and when she acquired the case’s documents in Queens, she noted, the court clerk withheld a set of sealed papers. "He pulled it right out of my hand," she said. "There is something in that file not meant for the public."

One cold day this month, I took a train with Ms. O’Connor to Kensico Cemetery, in Valhalla, N.Y.

I live in her neighborhood and have known Ms. O’Connor for some years. Her belief in synchronicity extends even to me. I briefly mentioned her and her cat in a 2012 article for this newspaper about a cat wrangler. I knew then of her research project, and I recently decided to write about it. In Ms. O’Connor’s eyes, the first article was merely the necessary prelude to this one.

"Am I done with the story?" she sometimes asks. "Is the story done with me?"

She took white roses to the graveyard. The anniversary of Ms. Grant’s death was approaching, and she wanted to lay them at her grave, as she has taken to doing since she discovered the burial plot in 2012.

The winter’s first snow had fallen overnight. The graveyard was otherwise empty and blanketed in white, which made for a jarring sight: a lone set of footprints leading directly from the road to Vivian Grant’s grave. Ms. O’Connor erupted into speculation: Could they belong to a certain former lover who never let go of the tragedy of his first romance? It took her a moment to calm down.

She knelt over the grave and dusted off the snow. It read "Vivian Greczka." She placed the roses on the slab.

"Well, Vivian, look who’s here," she said. "It’s me."

How Pink Is Your Floyd?

The Rise of the Smartbulb

By BOB TEDESCHI NY TIMES

Get ready to dust off the old jokes about how many (fill in the blank) people it takes to change a light bulb. I just spent a week changing some of the bulbs in my house, and the complexity was enough to give me a migraine.

Programmable light bulbs — you never knew you needed such things, but maybe you do — are among the latest offerings of a technology industry that wants to fill homes with new Internet-connected appliances. So now the humble bulb of old is no longer a throwaway commodity.

It’s a smartbulb, complete with a computer-chip and wireless technology that connects it to the great hive brain in the sky.

The punch line, I suppose, is that these bulbs are worth considering if you ever fantasized about living in a Jetsons-type household, and if you have enough disposable income to pay the early-adopter tax currently being levied on them. For that price, you’ll enjoy features that may impress your friends, lower your electric bills and possibly even save the life of a loved one. But more on that later.

Much of the change is a result of legislation passed during the George W. Bush administration, mandating the adoption of energy-efficient lighting. Numbered were the days of traditional incandescent bulbs; in their stead came waves of electricity-sipping halogens, fluorescents and, most recently, LEDs.

The great promise of LEDs is that they are designed to provide good, inexpensive light for decades. When the light bulb efficiency standards started taking effect and the first mass-market LEDs appeared a few years ago, however, the quality of light was morbidly cold and the prices enough to induce shock.

Fifty-dollar bulbs anyone?

But in the last year or so, mainstream manufacturers like Philips and General Electric and upstarts like Cree, most notably, have started rolling out cheaper bulbs with the kind of warm light you’d actually want to put in a room. As of last week, you could buy Cree’s 60-watt equivalent LED for $8 at New York-area retailers and $5 at some retailers in the Northeast.

Philips has also caused a stir in the marketplace with its Hue lights: With a Wi-Fi connection and a smartphone app, they can change colors and perform tricks previously known only to those with experience in disco lighting. Or hallucinogens.

These same technologies allow you to adjust the warmth and brightness of white bulbs, and control them in a variety of ways. And judging from the spate of similar bulbs that have emerged recently, manufacturers believe they have found a new market.

I tested six 60-watt-equivalent programmable LEDs, including GE’s Link ($15), the Philips Hue Lux ($30), Connected by TCP ($20) and Insteon ($30). I also tried out the Connected Cree ($15), which the company plans to release this week, and the Osram Sylvania Lightify Tunable White, which is available from Amazon for $30.

They all gave off good, warm light, and they offered the advantage of remote dimming using a smartphone or, in some cases, a dedicated remote control. You can also program them to switch on and off while you’re out of the house, to discourage break-ins.

　

All of these bulbs require the purchase of a dedicated gateway or hub to connect with your Wi-Fi network. For $50, GE is packaging two bulbs with the Wink home-networking hub, which can also connect to Internet-enabled appliances from Nest, Bali, Kidde and Schlage, as well as lights from Philips, Cree and others. The Wink sells separately for around $50.

Networking hubs made by Iris, Staples Connect and others offer similar functionality, and the Nest thermostat can act as a de facto hub in its own right. But not all hubs work with all Internet-enabled devices, because to do that they must speak the same technology language. And therein lies the one significant drawback of shopping for smartbulbs at the moment.

If you own stock in migraine-related pharmaceuticals, get ready to feel your legs tingle.

When appliances and other critical systems in the home are connected to the Web, they must use a wireless standard of some kind, be it Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a radio frequency agreed upon by independent manufacturers, as with the so-called ZigBee standard.

But partly because the "smart home" industry is so nascent, businesses haven’t yet widely agreed upon a single communication standard. So if you buy a set of smartbulbs and you’d like them to flash if your smoke alarm is triggered at night or your webcam detects an intruder, for instance, you may be out of luck.

As a result, said Richard Gunther, a consultant with Universal Mind, a Denver technology firm, smartbulb buyers have no choice but to do some research before they buy. "You can’t just buy a bulb and screw it in and expect it to work with your connected system," he said.

Nadarajah Narendran, a professor and director of research at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., agreed. "If you want the additional convenience that can come with the new LEDs, you need to be ready not just with your money but with your time," he said.

Both men expect things to get easier soon, perhaps as early as this year, as the industry coalesces around wireless standards the way the home-video industry ultimately settled on the VHS standard. The difference, they said, was that the smart-home industry will likely find ways to bridge the varying technologies, rather than leaving some consumers stranded on Betamax Island.

•

Of course, this wouldn’t be such a big deal if smartbulbs weren’t likely to constitute an important link in a long chain of connected home devices in the future. For instance, at the annual geekapalooza known as the Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas earlier this month, Philips was one of a host of companies that announced new ways to connect with the Google Nest thermostat ($250) and Nest Protect ($100), which detects carbon monoxide and smoke.

One of the more talked-about features focused on home safety. If you own Philips Hue A-19 color LEDs ($200 for three bulbs and a hub), you can program them to flash and glow red if Nest Protect detects dangerous smoke or carbon monoxide levels anywhere in the house. Why red? Phillips says white light makes it harder to see in smoky conditions. That said, Hue’s Lux (white) bulbs can also flash in conjunction with the Nest Protect’s alarm.

　

For heavy sleepers or those with impaired hearing, among others, such an innovation may be worth the expense and the bother involved in setting up the system. It took me two hours to install and activate my system through a series of Google searches and a nifty mobile app, Ifttt, which helps users program different devices to execute commands. (Ifttt stands for "if this, then that.")

Only later did I discover that Philips has set up a website, nest.MeetHue.com, that provides shortcuts for this activity. In a week or two, that site will probably pop to the top of a Google search. But at the moment, this is a fair example of the kind of hassles early adopters can expect.

•

The color-changing smartbulb market continues to be led by Philips, with other manufacturers slowly joining the competition. Osram Sylvania recently announced that it will release a color smartbulb this year, for instance, making it the first major lighting manufacturer to challenge Philips on this front.

At the same time, Hue lights are constantly evolving, thanks to mobile app developers who have invented hundreds of new ways to program them. Home theater enthusiasts with the Syfy Sync app can synchronize the bulbs with specific Syfy Channel programs, like "12 Monkeys," for instance, and Philips says similar partnerships are in the works for other shows. Hue apps can also help you program the bulbs to wake you or ease you to sleep with specific lighting blends.

Those who want a splash of color for less money might consider the Philips Friends of Hue color LightStrip ($90 for a 6.6-foot strip) and the new Osram Sylvania Lightify LED Flex RGBW ($65 for a 6-foot strip). Both can be controlled by a smartphone app and offer great bedtime and night-light options for children, or for hipsters who want to light the underside of a couch or a bar.

For the latter, that’s just the beginning. One of the more interesting connected-LED categories comes in the music realm, with companies like Sengled, Awox and others making lights that are also speakers. Awox’s Striimlight ($129 for Wi-Fi, $99 for Bluetooth) changes colors with the music, while the Sengled Pulse ($170 for a starter pair, $80 for additional units) emits only white light, but has a speaker inside made by JBL.

When I tried out the Pulse, it provided good light and decent audio versatility; its mobile app offered the option of tweaking the sound settings in response to the type of music being played.

The Striimlight’s Smart Control app offered color control with a feature that purported to change colors in time with the music. I tried it with (what else?) Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon" and was slightly underwhelmed at the sometimes random nature of the color changes. Still, the effect was cool.

It’s a fitting enough metaphor for the entire programmable LED market at the moment: a little pricey and out of sync, but still plenty trippy.

 

The Sniper, what honor, what glory, what shame?

 

 

 

 

From Inglorious Bastards

 

 

From American Sniper





 

What have we learned?

 

 

Iran Snipers killed protestors in Tehran 2009

 

 

Sniper kills liberal in US City 1963

 

When will we all decide snipers are not heroes but crazies we employ to do our dirty work?



 

Harmful or Harmless: Xanthan Gum

by Chris Kresser Health Blog

I hope everyone had a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving! Today, I’m continuing my series on common food additives.

Last time, I discussed the health effects of carrageenan, a food additive that is commonly used as a stabilizer, thickener, or emulsifier. Another additive that shares many of these functions in commercial foods is xanthan gum, which is also popular in gluten-free baked goods for the elasticity it lends to dough.

Although it isn’t as heavily discussed in the blogosphere as the other additives I’ve covered thus far, many health-conscious people see it on ingredient lists and wonder what it is, and whether they should be eating it. In this article, I’ll do my best to answer those questions.

 

Xanthan gum is a largely indigestible polysaccharide that is produced by bacteria called Xanthomonas Camestris. (1) Manufacturers place the bacteria in a growth medium that contains sugars and other nutrients, and the resulting product of bacterial fermentation is purified, dried, powdered, and sold as xanthan gum. (Makes you wonder who first thought to put it in food, doesn’t it?)

Animal studies

Overall, the results from animal studies on xanthan gum aren’t very concerning. In one experiment, rats were fed xanthan gum for two years in concentrations of 0.25, 0.50 or 1.0 g/kg body weight per day. (2) The only notable difference between the xanthan gum groups and the control group was that rats fed xanthan gum experienced soft stools somewhat more frequently than the control rats, but even that barely reached statistical significance. There were no differences in growth rate, survival, blood markers, organ weights or tumor incidence.

Another experiment followed a similar design but used dogs instead of rats, and the results were the same: no changes other than occasional soft stools. (3) In a three-generation reproductive study, rats were fed either 0.25 or 0.50 g/kg per day, and there were no significant changes in the parents and offspring from the xanthan gum-receiving groups. (4)

Based on those initial studies, it was concluded that xanthan gum is a perfectly safe food additive. Since then, a few additional animal studies with different aims have been published.

One study, conducted to evaluate the effects of xanthan gum on digestion in rats, found that a diet containing 4% xanthan gum increased the amount of water in the intestines by 400%, and also increased the number of sugars remaining in the intestine. (5) Another study found that in rats fed 50 g/kg of xanthan gum (an incredibly high dose) for 4 weeks, the stool water content and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) content increased significantly. (6)

This last study actually relates to the potential anti-tumor properties of xanthan gum, and researchers found that orally administered xanthan gum was able to slow tumor growth and prolong the survival of mice with melanoma. (7) The mechanism is unclear, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Human studies

Due to the lack of harmful effects observed in animal studies, there are few human studies on xanthan gum. The first study aimed to determine the safety of xanthan gum when consumed by humans in an everyday dietary setting, but at levels much higher than people would normally encounter in their diet. (8) For 23 days, 5 adult men with no GI issues consumed between 10.4g and 12.9g of xanthan gum daily (based on the subjects’ weight), which is 15 times the current Acceptable Daily Intake of 10mg/kg. Overall, they experienced a reduction in serum cholesterol, an increase in fecal bile acid, and an increase in stool output and water content.

Another study had volunteers consume 15g of xanthan gum per day for 10 days. (9) They found xanthan gum to be a “highly efficient laxative,” and subjects experienced greater stool output and gas. That’s not very surprising considering the high dose, but what I found particularly interesting about this study was their measurement of the ability of subjects’ fecal bacteria to metabolize xanthan gum.

The researchers found that before the trial period, bacteria from the stools of only 12 of the 18 subjects could break down the xanthan gum, while after the trial period, bacteria from 16 of the subjects could break it down. (10) Additionally, the stool samples containing bacteria that could break down the xanthan gum showed a much greater production of hydrogen gas and SCFA after the trial period as compared to baseline, indicating that the intestinal bacteria of the subjects quickly adapted to this new food source. Clearly, xanthan gum (like many indigestible carbohydrates) can have a profound impact on the gut microbiota in large doses.

Colitis in infants

The only concerning research I found on xanthan gum relates to the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in infants. Earlier this year, the New York Times published an article relating the tragic deaths of infants who had developed NEC after consuming a diet of formula or breast milk that had been thickened with a xanthan gum-based product called SimplyThick. This product was widely used in hospitals to thicken feed for infants with swallowing difficulties.

Two papers reviewed the cases of xanthan gum-associated NEC, and while there isn’t enough data to establish causation, the general consensus seems to be that the xanthan gum caused increased bacterial production of SCFA in the newborns’ intestines, and this contributed to the development of NEC. (11, 12) Although SCFA are vital to colon health, the immature digestive systems of newborns appear to be extremely sensitive to them. (13, 14) Since then, general practice guidelines suggest avoiding manufactured thickening products in babies under 12 months old, and rice cereal or baby oatmeal is used instead.

I wanted to address this because while it’s clearly important to avoid giving xanthan gum to infants (especially in large amounts), I’d like to emphasize that none of this changes the fact that xanthan gum appears to be relatively harmless in adult humans. None of the animal or human studies found damage to the intestinal mucosa following xanthan gum consumption, even in large doses, so this danger appears to be unique to newborns. For everyone else, SCFA aren’t something to be afraid of, and they are actually beneficial for the gut and for metabolic health, as I mention in previous articles here and here.

Wheat, corn, soy, and dairy allergies

I mentioned in the opening section that xanthan gum is produced by bacterial fermentation of a sugar-containing medium. Unfortunately, that ‘medium’ is often a potentially allergenic substance such as corn, soy, dairy, or wheat. Many xanthan gum manufacturers aren’t eager to share what their ‘medium’ is, but one common supplier, Bob’s Red Mill, discloses their production practices.

It looks like they originally used corn or soy as a medium, but they’ve since changed their medium to a glucose solution derived from wheat starch. However, they claim that the xanthan gum is still gluten-free, and it continues to be marketed as such.

It can be difficult to find production info online, but just be aware that if you have a severe allergy to corn, soy, wheat, or dairy, it would be prudent to either avoid xanthan gum entirely or check with the manufacturer to see how it’s produced.

Conclusion

Based on the available evidence, the worst xanthan gum seems to be capable of (in adults) is causing some digestive distress in those who are susceptible by increasing stool bulk, water content, and sugar content. But as I just mentioned, those with severe allergies should also be careful.

I recommend that people with digestive problems generally avoid xanthan gum, not because there’s evidence that it could damage your gut, but because its structural properties make it likely to produce unpleasant gut symptoms. Unlike carrageenan, there’s no evidence that xanthan gum can cause serious harm (even in human studies using doses much higher than people would normally encounter), so if you are able to tolerate it, I see no compelling reason to strictly avoid it. I wouldn’t recommend consuming large amounts every day, because xanthan gum appears to have a high propensity for altering the gut microbiome, and it’s unclear whether that alteration could be problematic in the long run. But the small amounts that you would normally encounter in the context of a real-food diet shouldn’t present a problem.

FROM Talking Points Memo:

Boy Did Not Return From Heaven!

By Tracy Walsh  TPM

Christian publisher Tyndale House is pulling its bestseller "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" after its now-teenaged subject admitted he made the story up, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

"I did not die. I did not go to heaven," Alex Malarkey said in a statement published on the Christian website Pulpit and Pen. "I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention."

"People have profited from lies, and continue to," he added. "They should read the Bible, which is enough."

Alex was 6 years old when he was involved in a devastating car crash that left him in a two-month coma. When he regained consciousness, he claimed that angels had escorted him through the gates of heaven and that he had met and spoke with Jesus.

His account served as the basis for the 2010 New York Times bestseller, co-authored by his father, Kevin Malarkey.

Alex’s mother, Beth Malarkey, has been a longtime critic of the book. The Washington Post noted a blog post she wrote about it in April.

"When Alex first tried to tell a 'pastor' how wrong the book was and how it needed stopped, [he] was told that the book was blessing people," she wrote. She said it was "puzzling and painful" to watch the book continue to sell.

Alex, who still has health problems as a result of the accident, has not received financial proceeds from the book, she added.

"There are many who are scamming and using the Word of God to do it," she said.

h/t Raw Story

From Washington Post:

　

‘Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ going back to publisher

 By Ron Charles January 15 at 5:32 PM

　

Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven," by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey.

The best-selling book, first published in 2010, describes what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months, and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the subsequent spiritual memoir — with its assuring description of "Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World" — became part of a popular genre of "heavenly tourism," which has been controversial among orthodox Christians.

Earlier this week, Alex recanted his testimony about the afterlife. In an open letter to Christian bookstores posted on the Pulpit and Pen Web site, Alex states flatly: "I did not die. I did not go to Heaven."

Referring to the injuries that continue to make it difficult for him to express himself, Alex writes, "Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short…. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible."

This evening, Todd Starowitz, public relations director of Tyndale House, told The Washington Post: "Tyndale has decided to take the book and related ancillary products out of print."

Last April, Alex’s mother, Beth Malarkey, posted a statement on her own blog decrying the memoir and its promotion: "It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book ‘The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven’ not only continue to sell, but to continue, for the most part, to not be questioned." She goes on to say that the book is not "Biblically sound" and that her son’s objections to it were ignored and repressed. She also notes that Alex "has not received monies from the book nor have a majority of his needs been funded by it."

She ends in obvious frustration, writing: "Alex’s name and identity are being used against his wishes…. How can this be going on??? Great question…. How did it get this far?… another great question."

　

Several Reviews from AMAZON BOOKS

An Amazing Miracle By Mama of a Dozen on August 5, 2010

Format: Hardcover

In November 2004, just one month before our son unexpectedly left for heaven, the author, Kevin Malarkey and his son, Alex (age 6) were in a serious accident. I remember reading the CaringBridge updates during our dark days . . . and theirs. I lost track after awhile, until I read that this book was coming out and those memories rushed back. In reading this book, I wonder . . . did my son and little Alex Malarkey cross paths in heaven?!?!?!

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven is an amazing, true story. Kevin is told by a church member who offers to drive him to the hospital that it looked very bad, and that he did not think Alex had made it and probably had gone to heaven. However, after two months Alex woke up from a coma. The details he could tell about the accident, could not be made up, from what people were wearing, procedures that were done and a man praying over him. He remembered seeing five angels carry his father, and later seeing him put on a flat board and cutting off his clothes. The angels told him his daddy would be okay. Little by little Alex shares stories of heaven, about the music, talking with Jesus and continued sightings of angels.

I so appreciated the honesty of Kevin. Having spent many weeks in ICU with our daughter who has now had three open heart surgeries and having buried two children . . . it's not easy, even for the Christian who knows Scripture and knows God is there. There is spiritual warfare and great weariness. Kevin shared how their marriage took a battering and was "stretched to the breaking point." It gripped my heart to read with having-been-there-understanding, as their pastor friend also shared in the book:

" . . . Kevin and Beth greatly struggled in their marriage. Many times I came to the house to speak with them, counsel them, and pray with them. Those were dark days . . .
. . . It is an absolute miracle, an absolute proof there is a God in Heaven, that their marriage survived and that they are together today. Without God, there is no possible way their marriage would have survived."

Alex is a quadriplegic who has made amazing progress. He was also the first child to receive the "Christopher Reeve Surgery", allowing him to breathe without a ventilator. Their van license plate reads, "Wil Walk". They have hope that is undeniably sustained through their faith in Jesus.

This is an easy reading book, that will keep your attention and in awe. I highly recommend The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven was provided to me free of charge by Tyndale House Publishers, in exchange for my honest opinion of it.

1.0 out of 5 stars God Himself is not fraud, January 16, 2015

By

Jeffrey S. Brown - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World (Paperback)

It is possible to have an out of body experience, I had one, so regardless if this book is a fraud, God can do whatever he wills. It is sad to see some of the mockery this confession from this boy has stirred up. Also I have seen where some have mocked this boy's statement about all truth being in the Bible. He is simply saying you do not need someone else's experience when God can speak to you personally through His scripture by the Holy Spirit. As I said I did have an out of body experience and God has shown His hand in my life, even leading up to before I had a conversion experience "so to speak." After my conversion experience I was somewhat back and forth for awhile with some backsliding. I moved to a location that was inexpensive, but you could say not the best. I was one among some other rented cabins that I called derelicts villa. I still had my belief but wasn't living it and God knew I still had my struggles and iniquities. One afternoon I came inside and sat down on the couch and was suddenly somewhere else. There was no travel time, it was instant. I was standing somewhere with two men a little ways in front of me. One was sitting in a plain like, throne like chair and the other man was standing in front of him and I believe the one sitting must have been Jesus. I was directly sideways from them and I knew they was aware of my presence. I could completely feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and I felt dirty, uncomfortable and exposed. Somehow I could sense their faces were about to turn and look at me and felt that to be unbearable and (again instantly) I was somewhere else. I was in a place of pure darkness, but I had some other kind of vision. I could feel the presence of Satan and could see his deception. I can't explain how I could see this in darkness, but I could, but the Holy Spirit was with me and the deception was clever and brilliant almost beyond comprehension but it was also instantly exposed for the deception which is was, so it changed to another deception just as brilliant and switched to it so swiftly, it was incredibly unbelievable, yet it's deception was exposed immediately, then came another, which also was exposed as unbelievably clever and deceptive, then suddenly I was simply there, sitting on my couch, among my familiar surroundings. No angel came to me, there was no explanation. It was not a dream or hallucination. I am convinced God had His purpose with me with this event and my story may have worth for some. I also have the point of view that none of us can comprehend God, but He can give a person the ability to believe, and the ability to trust Him and to love His Holy Spirit. We can encompass certain struggles within ourselves, from our proud filled nature, which resists God Himself, as we do have a sinful nature. Yet to work through this on a personal basis with God is more revealing of His truth than someone else's story. Not that some things do not have value or inspiration. I know there is a purpose for everything God has done in my life and His hand has been in my life in this very world we live in, and He apparently has not felt a need to be shy about it.

You Will Believe!, December 16, 2014

By

Christina - See all my reviews

Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World (Kindle Edition)

What glory God has made with loving hands in the Malarkey family! And you will read about why it can truly be said, "His grace is sufficient for me". Written on our hearts, and demonstrated by his creation, is the most important message you will ever hear. Do not wait until you see the Glory of God to listen to his message to you. You will read about Christ, our Lord and Saviour, ministering to the Malarkey family, and you will believe!

If you are curious about near death experiences you need to add this book to your list of things to read. If you are not a Christian you might be converted. As a Christian myself, I actually experienced two things that this child described. I did not need to be convinced of the validity of his story. I even found myself praying for him.