Archive for May, 2009
Omnivore’s Dilemma Gets Booted And Then Re-Instituted
Food activists and Pollan fans alike were stunned to hear that Washington State University (WSU) had cut the author’s famous Omnivore’s Dilemma from its freshmen “common reading” program. They called foul play and wondered, rather bluntly in many cases, whether the cancellation was due to the school’s (big) agricultural endowments.
WSU officials site budgetary issues, [...]
May 29, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, heroes, Michael Pollan, policy Posted in: Health, Politics 
No Comments
Judge Sotomayor, Where Will She Stand On Future Food Issues?
At Obama Foodorama, the slightly obsessive website of all things food related to the president, they have got plenty of questions about Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. They foresee many food and agriculture cases coming to the fore in the near future:
There’ve been many Supreme Court cases related to food and Ag [...]
May 27, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, policy, subsidies, USDA Posted in: Politics No Comments
Another Study Damns Excess Fructose Consumption
Another study is poised to enrage those embattled against sodas and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). A 10-week study led by Peter Havel from the University of California at Davis had groups of overweight men and women consume 25% of their daily calories from either glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages. The results were dramatic.
Although there was comparable [...]
May 25, 2009
Tags: food, Health, nutrition, obesity, sugar Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
Soda Tax, An Idea That’s Bubbling All Over
Everyone is excited about soda taxes, except for the soda companies and me. Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New York City health commissioner wrote a persuasive argument (pdf) for the imposition of soda taxes in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that has [...]
May 22, 2009
Tags: food, food event, Health, nutrition, obesity, soda, subsidies, sugar Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology 2 Comments
Mathematically Finding The Biggest Nutritional Bang For Your Buck
Studies have shown once again that when it comes to cost cutting, diets inevitably suffer. Researchers from University of Washington’s Center for Public Health Nutrition analyzed the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan” (TFP) and found it, well, lacking. TFP basically takes the USDA’s healthy eating pyramid and puts it on a tight budget. [...]
May 20, 2009
Tags: food, Health, innovation, nutrition, subsidies Posted in: Health, Science & Technology 3 Comments
Marion Nestle Continues To Fight For The Integrity Of Nutritional Science
Nutritionist and food safety activist extraordinaire Marion Nestle wrote a sternly worded email in response to a letter of nomination from the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) to join the Board of Directors of the Smart Choices program. She declined, explaining her reasons in an open letter that she posted to her blog:
Marion Nestle: Smart [...]
May 18, 2009
Tags: education, Health, heroes, marketing, nutrition, policy Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
Will We Say Cheerio To Cheerios Health Claims?
The FDA is cracking down on General Mills’ health claim on their Cheerios boxes. The claim, which is rather prominently displayed, says eating Cheerios will lower your cholesterol by 4% in 6 weeks. Even if “clinical trials” have shown such improvement, the issue is that General Mills is making a claim that its product works [...]
May 15, 2009
Tags: change, FDA, food safety, Health, marketing, policy Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology No Comments
Water Water Everywhere, But Everyone’s Drinking Soda
This is a second inquiry into the links between drinking soda and obesity rates. It follows High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Its Place in the Obesity Epidemic:
Consumption of sugary drinks has been on the rise since the 1970’s and it is though to be a key factor in the simultaneous rise in obesity rates. Frighteningly, soda and [...]
May 13, 2009
Tags: fast-food, nutrition, obesity, soda, sugar Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
How To Curb An Outbreak
Excerpted from Mental_Floss (Volume 5, Issue 3):
In 1918 and 1919, one-fifth of the world’s population contracted influenza, and nearly 50 million people died as a result. That’s more fatalities in a single year than the 14th-century Black Plague caused in four. Even scarier, at the time of the flu outbreak, public health officials [...]
May 12, 2009
Tags: Health, innovation, marketing, trivia Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Health No Comments
Heart-Healthy Diets Put To The Test
The summary by Jennifer Warner from WebMD Health News about the health merits of various dietsis is as succinct as one can be. It details the results of a review of diet and health disease studies by Andrew Mente, PhD, of the Population Health Research Institute and colleagues (published in the Archives of Internal [...]
May 11, 2009
Tags: Health, nutrition, vegetarianism Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
