Vitamin D has garnered more publicity in recent months than any other vitamin. This week, The Money Times reports on a United Kingdom study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, claiming that deficiencies of this Sunshine Vitamin correlate with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

It seems that the China State Food and Drug Administration is needlessly targeting McDonald’s with allegations that the U.S. FDA-approved food additives used in Chicken McNuggets are a public health threat. The food additives under question are TBHQ, an antioxidant, and dimethylpolysiloxane, a widely used anti-foaming agent that prevents oil from becoming rancid.

The same advisory panel assessing Avandia will also evaluate the safety and efficacy of one of three new weight loss drugs this week. Given the difficulties in developing a drug that can safely induce substantial weight loss and a 35 percent U.S. adult obesity rate, there is high demand for a new weight loss option.

The FDA’s advisory committee on endocrinologic and metabolic drugs today began evaluating the most recent studies on the safety of GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug Avandia, which some politicians and scientists have accused of increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications. Ultimately, the committee will call for stricter warning labels on Avandia, restriction of its prescription to certain specialists, or its withdrawal from the market.

ACSH is pulling the honorary seat out from under the California Assembly. We honored them prematurely, since the Assembly reversed itself and voted July 1 for a ban on bisphenol A in baby products. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it has already passed, for a reconciliation vote in August; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't taken a position on the bill.

Alarm over new food technologies is increasing in the EU as the European Parliament asked for a ban against the sale of foods from cloned animals and their offspring last Wednesday.

The recent whooping cough epidemic in California is putting the state on track for its worst outbreak of the disease in 50 years, and parents like Danielle Lawson of San Anselmo seem to be exacerbating the problem.

Conventionally grown produce is losing its nutrients, and it s only getting worse, according to an article published in Prevention Magazine and posted on MSNBC.com. According to Donald Davis, PhD, senior research consultant for the Bio-Communications Research Institute, selective breeding and synthetic fertilizers are to blame since they diminish a plant s ability to absorb nutrients.

After we reported it on Friday, a recent article by Gina Kolata in The New York Times also addressed how public health officials are debating which is more important: reducing teenage smoking rates or curbing childhood obesity?

Federal officials used flawed statistics to justify a ban on flavored cigarettes last year, claims Dr. Joel Nitzkin, chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force for the American Association of Public Health Physicians. At a Sept. 22, 2009, press conference, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh claimed the ban “will break the cycle for 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."