Kentucky Fried Chicken will be displaying warnings on its fried or baked potatoes saying that they can contain a suspected cancer causing chemical, acrylamide.

KFC settled a state lawsuit in California and will also have to pay $341,000 in penalties and funding for Proposition 65 enforcement, which is a voter-passed measure that requires businesses to post warnings about dangerous chemicals contained in food. Acrylamide is created when chemicals in food react to high heat.

I'm not surprised that french fries from a fast food restaurant are dangerous. What shocked me though is that the warning also states "It (acrylamide) is created in fried and baked potatoes made by all restaurants, by other companies, and even when you bake or fry potatoes at home".

In the land down under tongues are wagging over the new Naked Rugby League calendar being sold to raise money for breast cancer charity. Seems the boys are baring it all and one of the players left little to the imagination in the position of hand to -- well -- private parts.

The NRL has gone very public over the fact they do not want to be associated with the nude shenanigans of players Johnathan Thurston, Justin Hodges, Paul Whatuira, Brent Webb, Ben Ross, Amos Roberts, Ashley Harrison, Riley Brown, Stuart Webb, Greg Bird, Michael Witt, Liam Fulton and Nick Youngquest.

Although all the players are nude, Youngquest has stirred the pot and is taking most of the heat, as he draped his hand in such a way as to reveal more than some consider good taste in nudity. The calendar's photographer Pedro Virgil insists the shots are provocative but tastefully done.

The Naked Rugby League calendar went on sale yesterday. The spokeswoman for the breast cancer foundation that the calendar will benefit has said they had nothing to do with the making of the calendar. I visited the online store, where many pink products are featured, and the Naked Rugby League calendar is not one of the featured items. If the charity does include the calendar in its online store, I will retract and update that last observation. In my opinion, seems they could have come out a wee bit stronger in their support for the calendar if they are the primary -- and only -- benefactors.

This story almost reminds me of another story earlier this year, when a woman died from breast cancer and her coworkers got together to honor her memory by raising money for breast cancer charity. Because they worked as exotic dancers, the first year they held a fundraiser they could not find a breast cancer charity who would accept the donation unless the dancers agreed to donate anonymously. The women had enough self-respect to decline the conditions for donation. The second year, a national breast cancer organization told the dancers they would proudly accept the donation from the fundraiser, and publicly announce affiliation with this group of women wanting to help with breast cancer research.

I have never completely cut a certain food from my diet just because of speculation that it may cause cancer. Because I eat most everything in moderation, I have felt that anything I am ingesting is too small an amount to make any real difference. I have heard recommendations about nixing preserved foods and anything treated with hormones and refined sugar and while I try to eat a balanced, healthy diet -- with a bit of sweet stuff thrown in -- I do sometimes indulge my cravings for foods that are not very healthy. Like chips -- which writer Robert L. Wolke says he is definitely eliminating from his diet.

The chemical acrylamide -- a probable carcinogen -- has been found in fried starchy foods, especially potato chips and French fries. This chemical is not a contaminant that somehow appears in our food but is created by chemical reactions that take place during cooking at high temperatures. It's a chemical that has been used in industry and has been known to damage the central nervous system, the immune system, and the reproductive system. And it may cause cancer. Recently, acrylamide was discovered in foods at hundreds of times the .5-parts-per-billion level that is considered safe in drinking water.

Authorities in Germany have already begun enforcing regulations to minimize the amounts of acrylamide in foods. But the United States has been criticized for dragging its feet on this issue. In fact, the National Uniformity for Food Act (H.R. 4167) recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives, with 94 percent of Republicans supporting it and 64 percent of Democrats opposing. It has gone to the Senate, where it was the subject of a hearing on July 27. The act would prohibit states or local governments from setting more stringent limits on toxic substances.

Each of us can still take personal action with regard to the foods we eat -- despite what the government dictates. We can decide what to eat and what not to eat. In the interest of our health. And our future.

For information on acrylamide levels in hundreds of different foods, click here.

I hesitate to bring this up, as the hot dog is a bonafide American icon, associated so closely as it is to the all-American pastimes of baseball and backyard barbeques -- and to sacrilegiously make the suggestion or malign the hot dog on any level I realize puts me at risk of having my patriotism brought into question.

Still, knowing this, I have chosen to throw pickle relish caution to the wind in the name of science and better health.

According to University of Nebraska researchers (you note I point directly to the researchers as the originators of this news) some hot dogs might cause DNA mutation and increase colon cancer risks. Not all hotdogs, but they cannot tell you at this time which hotdogs are a cancer menace.

Hot dogs do not stand alone as culprits to cancer. Salted dried fish and soy sauce have been identified as potential offenders. But I am not nearly as skittish in mentioning the latter two.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that more than seven billion hot dogs will be eaten by Americans between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Statistics estimate the breakdown of hot dog consumption per American is 60 hot dogs a year.

Next? Brushing up on my French.

Sunscreen products containing Mexoryl SX or ecamsule, an ingredient designed to block the sun's harmful UVA rays, have been sold in Canada and Europe for over ten years, but have not been available here.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved the over-the-counter sale of L'Oreal Anthelios SX sunscreen product containing ecamsule to consumers in the US.

While UVB rays are known to cause sunburn, UVA rays penetrate deeper into the skin and are associated with an increased risk for basal and squamous cell cancers and melanoma skin cancer. Anthelios SX is made by the French cosmetics company L'Oreal. Mexoryl SX is owned by L'Oreal, and is only available in L'Oreal products.

Sunscreens might provide some protection from the harmful rays of the sun, and should be used when going out in the sun. Still your best bet is to shade yourself when spending any length of time in the sun and staying out of the sun during the peak hours of 10 AM to 4 PM when sun can cause the most skin damage.

Fast food and junk food snacks are not good for health. Smoking is not good for health. Little sleep and non-existent periods of relaxation are not good for health. Lack of exercise and weight gain from stress eating are not good for health. But according to researchers, women who work long hours are prone to some or all these habits, and that is not a good thing for their health. Smoking, damage to the immune system due to unrelenting levels of stress, lack of exercise and weight gain all increase cancer risks.

Leeds University conducted a study that showed women typically respond to the stress of working long hours by engaging in negative habits that are detrimental to their immediate and long-term health. According to researchers, the reaction to stress can manifest in choosing unhealthy high fat and high sugar snacks before choosing healthier food.

The study compared how men and women respond to stress, and if there was a difference. Some experts stated that men are less likely to be affected by working long hours because they are not expected to multi-task when they get home from work in the same way women are expected to do. Researchers said most women agree to their take on the matter.

Knowing that some women alleviate stress in unhealthy ways, gives women an opportunity to step back and assess how they might choose better strategies for dealing with stress -- or in minimizing some of the causes of stress in their life. Aside from these research findings, I think both men and women in modern society are under enormous daily stress and we all need to step back and evaluate how much of our health we are willing to compromise.

In the phenomenal bestseller Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet, written by Montreal biochemist Richard Beliveau with fellow scientist Denis Gingras, the authors refer to fruits and vegetables as a preventative non-toxic version of chemotherapy.

Originally published in French, the book has recently been translated into English. Based on scientific studies in food chemistry, the book's two main goals are to educate people about what cancer is -- and how to eat for cancer prevention.

Beliveau explains in layman's terms how cancer develops, how it takes years for cancer to develop, how tumors form spontaneously, and how most cancers remain insignificant. He says, "Preventing cancer is destroying these microtumors and blocking them from reaching a stage where they become clinically relevant." There are foods with the biochemical capacity to block some cancers. He wants the reader to realize that we cannot eat as badly as we do and expect medicine to come up with a miracle pill when something goes wrong.

Following is an excerpt of some of the information the reader will find in Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet:

In the continuing battle of the bulge, and realizing that more families eat out more often than ever before, the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, commissioned a report to discover ways to stop the growing weight gain epidemic. Based on the Keystone Report, the FDA is recommending that restaurants cut back on portions, serve more fruits and vegetables and provide nutritional and caloric information with the meals they serve.

You can imagine how well this is going over with the 900,000 restaurants and other food establishments in this country. For a restaurant to implement what the government is suggesting they do, the report itself notes that the laboratory work needed to calculate the calorie content of a menu item can cost $100, or anywhere from $11,500 to $46,000 to analyze an entire menu. That is not taking into account any menu changes. But who exactly is making us fat?

For a health-informed public that is beginning to demand more nutrition and less fat in the food they are served -- fast food is falling out of its once favored position of popularity as a quick meal for kids. Who doesn't think that McDonald's and the golden arches are the unofficial defining symbol for fast food?

In response to the perception that fast food is not linked to good health, along with the negative image resulting from the book and movie Fast Food Nation -- and now the publication of a children's book Chew On This, which is co-written by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser -- McDonald's has announced the creation of a Global Moms Panel. Nine women from six countries will advise the company on balanced and active lifestyle initiatives, restaurant communications and children's well-being.

Translation? McDonald's wants to find out how to market to moms who are interested in their children living long healthy lives free from obesity and the nutrition-deficient food that can increase the risks for major disease later in life, like cancer. Which has the potential for being a good thing if McDonalds does offer healthier food as a result of the recommendations from moms. If it's just a public relations campaign to improve a business image then I believe the public will see through it and the effort will backfire. According to Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer, "We want to become the best ally we can for moms and a true partner in the well-being of families everywhere." Time will tell.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have determined that eating French fries during the early years of life is linked to a significant increase of developing breast cancer later in life. Researchers believe this study, involving 2,000 nurses, further demonstrates the effect diet has during the early formative years to health in later years. As part of the Nurses’ Health Study and the Nurses’ Health Study II, mothers filled out a questionnaire in which they indicated which of 30 foods their daughter ate between the ages of three to five years old.

According to the researchers, they found that each additional serving of French fries per week represented a 27 percent increased risk of breast cancer. Potatoes were not the problem. The cooking method of frying French fries in saturated fats and trans fats seemed to be what created the increased breast cancer risk. One more bit of bad news from the fast food nation.