Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released data on the acrylamide content of a variety of new foods (see http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01040.html). The new data expand the database to an additional 750 foods. Acrylamide, for those who have forgotten, is the substance formed in high-carbohydrate foods that are baked or fried at high temperatures.

Walk into any food store. Unless it is a market that carries only ocean fish or meat harvested from wild animals, the food that it sells is a product of domestication and modification by humans. In any supermarket, we find a bewildering variety of foodstuffs that bear only the slightest resemblance to the wild progenitors from which they were once derived. The ancestors of many of our everyday foodstuffs are known to us only because of twentieth-century developments in the science of genetics, which allowed us to identify the wild plants from which they were derived.

"I cannot explain to my mother any longer why she should pay twice or two-thirds more than what is paid in Canada and Mexico. I'm switching my position." United States Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), March 11th, 2004.
Dear Sen. Lott:
It pains me to hear that your concern for your aged mom has caused some confusion on your part about the risks and benefits of importing drugs from Canada and elsewhere. You suggest that your inability to explain your earlier position to your aged mother is justification for your change in position

The City Council of Aliso Viejo, CA was scheduled to consider a law banning foam cups and containers this week in part, reports the Los Angeles Times, because they contain a potentially deadly chemical some call "dihydrogen monoxide." It is more commonly called water, notes the Times, and city officials say that a paralegal drafting the proposed legislation was duped by Internet sites repeating the nerdy joke that something ought to be done about the dihydrogen monoxide problem.

The Natural Resources Defense Council report cited in your March 9 article "The Old Yellow School Bus as a Threat" is an unreliable source. The report was not reviewed by peers for accuracy and does not offer sufficient data or details to support its assertion that exposure to diesel fumes on school buses increases childhood risk of cancer.

For the past four or five years a clarion call to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains has been heard throughout the U. S. Often it is coupled with "and avoid saturated fat" or "avoid dairy and meat because of saturated fat." All versions of the call, one way or another, are urging us to reduce meat and milk products in our diets. No doubt one purpose of the fruit-and-vegetable cry is to help deal with the obesity epidemic, a very worthy objective, but it doesn't seem to be working. Americans are reported to be getting fatter all the time.

If it's difficult to deal successfully with overweight and obesity in adults, it can be even harder to help overweight children attain and maintain age-appropriate, healthful body weight. Is a given child really at risk for unhealthy weight gain, or is he or she simply putting on a few extra pounds in anticipation of a growth spurt? Is the family prone to obesity and related diseases? Are family members willing to change their lifestyle if necessary to help the child attain and maintain an appropriate weight?

An article on the website of the Sierra Club has given new life to the Internet rumor that plastic water bottles are a health hazard, possibly the cause of birth defects such as Down Syndrome. Years of studies on the purported culprit chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA), have not shown any health effects on humans, but one study showing minor effects on mouse egg cells, led by Dr. Patricia Hunt at Case Western Reserve University, has provided the grain of truth leading to the latest excessive fear.

Morgan Spurlock, the moviemaker whose claim to fame is that he ate his way to obesity at McDonald's, seems to have padded his ego in addition to his midsection. In an interview with The Today Show's Katie Couric, Mr. Spurlock said, in part "I think that this film had a tremendous impact on their decision to eliminate supersized portions." Leaving egos aside for a moment, Mr. Spurlock is basically exhibiting his ignorance of the world of food service. Any change, whether in portion size or in menu choices, takes months of planning and figuring of costs and procedures.