Erik Martin becomes Superhero

Thursday was shaping up to be just another school day for 13-year-old Erik Martin, but then something extraordinary happened: Spider-Man called.

Spider-Man happens to be one of the few people who knows that Erik, too, has a secret identity — he’s Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil with light.

And Spider-Man needed Erik’s help.

Erik, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle.

The local chapter, which serves four states, grants more than 300 wishes every year to children with life-threatening medical conditions, but only a few of them involve so many participants.

Pulling off a wish like this one required a big story, and a lot of heart. And so, with a note of panic in his voice, Spider-Man explained the dilemma: “Dr. Dark” and “Blackout Boy” had imprisoned the Seattle Sounders in a locker room at Qwest Field. Only Electron Boy could free them.

Erik got into his red-and-blue superhero costume, and called on the powers of Moonshine Maid, who owns a DeLorean sports car. For good measure, more than 20 motorcycle officers from the Bellevue Police Department and King County and Snohomish sheriff’s offices escorted Electron Boy to Seattle.

“They shut down 405 — they shut down I-90,” marveled Moonshine Maid, aka Misty Peterson. “I thought it would just be me, in the car.”

At Qwest Field, Electron Boy was directed by frantic fans to the Sounders locker room, where the entire team was shouting for help behind jammed doors. With a little help from Lightning Lad, the alter ego of local actor Rob Burgess, Erik opened the door with his lightning rod. The Sounders cheered.

“Thank you, Electron Boy,” said defender Taylor Graham.

“You saved us!” exclaimed forward Nate Jaqua.

“Good job, big man,” said defender Tyrone Marshall. And forward Steve Zakuani mutely bowed his thanks.

Electron Boy seemed a little dazed by his powers. Out on Qwest Field, the Sounders gave Erik a hero’s congratulations, posed for pictures and gave him a jersey and autographed ball.

Everyone was startled when, overhead, the Jumbotron crackled to life.

“Electron Boy, I am Dr. Dark and this is Blackout Boy,” sneered an evil voice, as the villain — Edgar Hansen, and his sidekick Jake Anderson, both of Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” — taunted the young superhero. “We are here to take over Seattle and make it dark!”

On the Jumbotron, a video showed a Puget Sound Electric employee Jim Hutchinson trapped in the top of his bucket truck in front of PSE’s Bellevue headquarters. Only Electron Boy could save him.

As Electron Boy’s motorcade — the DeLorean, the 25 motorcycle officers and a white limo — rolled through downtown Bellevue, pedestrians stopped in their tracks and pulled out their cameras to take pictures. Clearly, somebody famous was in town. But who could it be?

“It’s Electron Boy,” Erik’s older sister, Charlotte Foote, shouted out the window of the limousine.

More than 250 PSE employees gathered outside the company’s headquarters and cheered as Electron Boy freed the trapped worker. “It was so loud, people in office buildings were looking out the window,” said Make-A-Wish communications director Jeannette Tarcha.

But Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy were still at large. Electron Boy got a tip that the evil duo were at the Space Needle, where they had disabled the elevator and trapped people on the observation deck. Racing back to Seattle, Electron Boy stepped out of the DeLorean to a cheering crowd of dozens of admirers, and confronted his nemesis.

“How did you find us, Electron Boy?” Dr. Dark demanded.

Erik wordlessly leapt at Dr. Dark with his lightning rod, freezing the villain. Then he unlocked the elevator and freed the people trapped upstairs.

Bellevue police Officer Curtis McIvor snapped handcuffs on Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy, who couldn’t resist some last words: “How can we thank you for saving our souls?”

A tiny smile played around Electron Boy’s mouth. Just for good measure, he held his lightning sword to Blackout Boy’s throat again. The crowd went wild. “Hip-hip, hooray!”

Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw stepped forward with a key to the city and a proclamation that Thursday was Electron Boy Day. Afterward, Erik posed for the TV cameras, flexed his muscles and spent some time astride a Bellevue police motorcycle.

“He’s over the moon,” said Foote. “This is definitely beyond anything we thought it would be.”

Watching her son run across the plaza in front of the Space Needle, mom Judy Martin said Erik goes to school when he’s able, but is often too tired. “He hasn’t had this much energy in a long time,” she said. “They called it the power of the wish, and they’re right.”

Like any good superhero, Electron Boy kept his innermost thoughts to himself. But he did have one important thing to say:

“This is the best day of my life.”

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jinomoto brands aspartame aminosweet

It’s now more than 25 years since products sweetened with aspartame were first launched in Europe. In this time, the sweetener has transformed the market for low-calorie and sugar-free foods and drinks and has become the first choice for many leading brands.

Like other low-calorie sweeteners, aspartame delivers sweetness without calories, but it’s unique in two ways:

• Aspartame tastes like sugar
• Aspartame is made from two amino acids.

In recent years, there has been more and more focus on the development of low-calorie foods and drinks that help consumers maintain a healthy weight and avoid obesity. At the same time, food and drink manufacturers have become more interested in what their ingredients are made of and where they come from.

Ajinomoto believes that the time is right to remind the industry that aspartame tastes just like sugar, and that it’s made from amino acids – the building blocks of protein that are abundant in our diet.

The name AminoSweet is appealing and memorable. It reflects that AminoSweet comes from the same amino acids that are abundant in the food we eat every day.

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Soda warning: High sugar intake linked to pancreatic cancer

(NaturalNews) On Wednesday, research was released from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden that showed people who drink soft drinks or add sugar to their coffee increase their risk of developing pancreatic cancer.The researchers studied the diets of nearly 80,000 men and women between 1997 and 2005. Of those, 131 developed cancer of the pancreas. The group of people who reported drinking sodas or syrup-based drinks twice a day or more were 90 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who did not consume such beverages; people who added sugar to their drinks about five times a day were 70 percent more likely to contract the disease; and those who consumed the popular Swedish sugary dessert known as creamed fruit were at a 50 percent increased risk for the cancer, according to the results published in the American Jounral of Clinical Nutrition.

“The researchers have now been able to show that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is related to the amount of sugar in the diet,” said a statement released by the institute.

“Despite the fact that the chances of developing pancreatic cancer are relatively small, it’s important to learn more about the risk factors behind the disease,” said researcher Susanna Larsson.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease, and is notoriously difficult to treat because it usually does not get diagnosed until it has spread beyond the pancreas. About 216,000 new cases of the cancer are diagnosed each year, mostly in developed countries and mostly in people older than 60.

“It is perhaps the most serious form of cancer, with very poor prognoses for its victims,” Larsson said. “Since it’s difficult to treat and is often discovered too late, it’s particularly important that we learn to prevent it.”

“Pancreatic cancer is just one more serious health danger that comes from drinking soft drinks and sugar-laden beverages,” said Mike Adams, a health advocate and author of “The Five Soft Drink Monsters.” “In both Europe and the United States, these drinks are contributing, not only to cancer, but also to the spreading obesity epidemic and the subsequent increase in type 2 diabetes cases.

“The path to true health does not include any refined sugars whatsoever, least of all from ‘sugar water’ or sweetened juice drinks,” he said.

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University of Minnesota researchers found that people who downed two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

(Feb. — Sugary soft drinks drastically increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a long-term study of 60,000 people in Singapore.

A research team at the University of Minnesota followed thousands of men and women participating in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years. At the end of the study, published this month in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, the team found that those drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Oddly enough, those who drank fruit juice, which can have as much sugar as soda, didn’t have the same cancer risk. Pereira suggests that soda drinkers might have poor health habits, which exacerbate their risk of illness. Of those studied in Singapore, individuals who drank soda were more likely to smoke and eat red meat — two lifestyle factors already linked to cancer.

The connection between sugar and pancreatic cancer makes sense: insulin, which helps the body digest sugar, is made in the pancreas. Researchers suspect that sugary soda interferes with the body’s insulin levels, which then contributes to cancerous cell growth in the pancreas.

Diabetes, another illness in which the body’s insulin production is compromised, is a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer. The onset of diabetes later in life can also be an early symptom.

Determining the cause of pancreatic cancer could save thousands of lives a year: 230,000 people are diagnosed worldwide each year, and the American Cancer Society estimates that only 5 percent survive for five years.

But the study isn’t a definitive answer. Out of the 60,000 individuals studied, 140 developed pancreatic cancer. Of those, 18 cases occurred in patients who’d consumed large quantities of soda, 12 occurred in those who drank soda occasionally, and 110 occurred in those who never consumed the sugary beverages.

In their analysis, the researchers acknowledge that the small numbers limit the power of the data, and “giv[e] potential to a chance association.” The team also cites four previous studies that found little or no connection between soda and pancreatic cancer.

There are a handful of definitive or suggested causes for pancreatic cancer, making this study even more difficult to interpret. Aside from red meat consumption, smoking and diabetes, risk factors include genetics, ethnicity, old age, obesity and even excessive alcohol consumption.

The American Heart Association advises that women should consume fewer than 6.5 teaspoons of added sugar a day, and men should limit their consumption to 9.5 teaspoons. Given that a single can of soda contains 13 teaspoons, Americans would be wise to cut down, whether or not they’re motivated by a potential cancer risk.