The New York Times chronicles the development of widespread and baseless distrust of high-fructose corn syrup: “What started as a narrow movement by proponents of natural and organic foods has morphed into a swell of mainstream opposition, thanks in large part to tools of modern activism like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter … This is happening even though many scientists say that high-fructose corn syrup is no worse for people than sugar, which costs some 40 percent more.”

An editorial in today s Wall Street Journal notes, With the headlines full of oil spills and immigration, the Obama Administration's regulatory agenda is getting little attention. That's a mistake. Consider the Environmental Protection Agency's effort to revive an assault on atrazine, one of the oldest, most well-established agricultural chemicals on the market.

Research presented at experimental biology conference this week in Anaheim, Calif., showed that people who ate cookies labeled as organic believed that their snack contained 40% fewer calories than the same cookies that had no label.

Liz Szabo of USA Today reports, The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first vaccine to treat prostate cancer or any cancer the culmination of decades of research into harnessing the immune system to fight tumors.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has come out with an updated list of the dirty dozen crops that contain the highest levels of pesticides. The top five are celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, and making its terrifying EWG produce-list debut blueberries.
It s an absolute tragedy that this group is trying to scare people away from eating fruits and vegetables, says Dr. Whelan. It s irresponsible and unacceptable.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected a request by cigarette giant Philip Morris USA to remove four members of a key tobacco-products advisory panel that the company said had extensive conflicts of interest.” The panel is intended to assess the role of smokeless tobacco products as a means of harm reduction for addicted smokers.

Nutrition “guru” Gary Null has filed a lawsuit in the Manhattan Supreme Court after suffering “excruciating fatigue along with bodily pain” as a result of eating his own dietary supplement, aptly titled “Gary Null’s Ultimate Power Meal.”

Ms. Magazine highlights a report on women and lung cancer from the Mary Horrigan Connors Center For Women's Health and Gender Biology, noting, Currently, lung cancer kills more women than breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers combined. Lung cancer first surpassed breast cancer to become the single largest cause of cancer deaths in American women in 1987.

The National Institutes of Health reports that an independent panel convened to determine the value of strategies to prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has not found any evidence of their success.
“To tell the truth, there is just no known way to prevent Alzheimer’s, despite many claims that you can take steps to reduce the risk of disease,” says Dr. Whelan.

A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco identifies what could be indicators as to whether a patient’s ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS, a non-invasive breast cancer lesion) will progress to invasive breast cancer.