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"The studies didn't do that but they certainly told us a great deal about what does not exist as health threats to the community."
Dr. Malcolm Smith of the National Cancer Institute, after an exhaustive study found no environmental causes for an alleged cancer cluster in Fallon, NV, as quoted by AP on February 24.

Not so long ago, hunger was the only food issue over which it was worth issuing international reports, but the World Health Organization recently suggested that governments around the world should start fighting obesity by using taxes and subsidies to get people to eat healthy foods. That inspired the U.S. government to tell the U.N., correctly, that it is one's total diet, not specific "good" and "bad" foods, that determine one's weight (and overall health), as the AP's Jonathan D. Slant reported on January 16:

If I told you that I knew how to find the cause of childhood leukemia, you might think I was either a genius or Erin Brockovich. If I further told you that we could attribute this cruel disease to products of multinational chemical corporations, companies that do millions of dollars of business with the U.S. Navy, or to underground nuclear tests, you might refer me to some eager lawyers.

The dreaded mad cow disease has finally arrived. How worried should we be? Should you avoid the range cattle you come across on hikes in Montana or skip that steak when you visit Bozeman?

There's something odd about the photo of the man PETA just declared the "sexiest vegetarian alive," as ACSH's Jeff Stier noticed. Twenty-one year-old Zachery from Yale is a vegan and thus probably thinks himself purer than thou for avoiding meat but what's that impure thing in his mouth...?
http://www.peta.org/feat/sexiestVegVote/

The furor continues over acrobat Matthew Cusick, who was hired by the Cirque du Soleil to perform aerial acrobatics, then fired shortly after he disclosed his HIV-positive status. In a letter terminating Cusick's employment, the Montreal-based circus stated that his HIV-positive status "will likely pose a direct threat of harm to others, particularly in the case of future injury," according to a January 5 report on the Kaiser Network website.

Summarized by: William D. Evers, Ph.D., R.D.
Department of Foods and Nutrition
Purdue University West Lafayette IN

An Italian perspective on the transcultural obesity debate:
Nations used to compete over trade and military spheres of influence. These days, it is hard to find a country that does not claim it is the fattest in the world.

The Food and Drug Administration's announcement of its intention to ban weight loss or "athletic performance enhancing" products containing ephedra is good news. However, it took over 100 deaths, including that of a major league baseball player, over 10,000 recorded complaints, and countless scientific studies for the FDA to ban this dangerous supplement.

Are you surprised to learn that each cup of eggnog you sipped merrily over the holiday season set you back 306 calories per cup? And that slice of pecan pie, another holiday favorite, cost you anywhere between 500 and 800 big ones at the calorie counter. If you ate a large tub of popcorn (with butter) and an accompanying 32-ounce Coke at the movie theatre over the holidays, then you satisfied a 2,000-calorie per day intake requirement in a single sitting.
Were you unaware of how many calories you were packing away or did you know and continue eating anyway?

It is that time of the year: parties, presents, family gatherings - and dining-room tables laden with a tempting array of mouthwatering, delicious, seasonal chemicals.
Chemicals? Yes.
We live in an intensely chemical-phobic society, one where food labels and menus brag of being "all-natural" and "purely organic." Poultry sections offer fryers from "happy, free range chickens." "Chemical-free" cuisine is in.

When tests on a cow slaughtered near Yakima, Washington, tested positive earlier this week for what is known in lay terms as "Mad Cow Disease," consumers were understandably bewildered and anxious. What did this mean for their food selection and health?
Is it safe to eat beef? Is the USDA falling down on the job and allowing an infectious agent into our food supply?

Beef is a wholesome, safe food that makes nutritious contributions to the American diet. This is the conclusion of a literature review recently conducted by physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).
The scientific facts on beef and health are detailed in a new ACSH publication, The Role of Beef in the Diet.

The American Council on Science and Health releases...
Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You Information Tobacco Companies Don't Want Teens to Know About the Dangers of Smoking

In its ninth survey of nutrition coverage by popular magazines, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) found that magazines directed towards homemaking and consumer interests once again provided the most reliable information. The survey, which covered magazines published in 2000, 2001, and 2002, ranked 16 of 20 magazines as "good" sources of nutrition information, two magazines were rated "fair," and two earned a rating of "poor."

Summarized by: William D. Evers, Ph.D., R.D. Department of Foods and Nutrition Purdue University West Lafayette IN

I must interrupt your usual HealthFactsAndFears.com programming just briefly to note that its editor me will be on one of those fashion makeover TV shows that are all the rage lately, specifically Style Court on the Style Network, at the following (Eastern) times:
Thursday, Jan 8: 8pm and 11pm Friday, Jan 9: 9am and 4pm
(If you have digital cable, you may well have the Style Network.)

It's no surprise when an activist group trots out a lone, non-peer-reviewed study in an effort to bolster its case, but you would think that government regulations rest on a stronger scientific foundation. Guess again.

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the first time the U.S. government declared smoking a serious danger to health, the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, published January 11, 1964. With evidence of over 7,000 biomedical research articles on the topic, the committee of the Surgeon General declared, "Cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action."

ACSH has repeatedly lamented the green/environmentalist movement's opposition to life-saving chemicals such as DDT, and we see that the civil rights group CORE will protest this tragedy today:
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Contact: Cyril Boynes, Jr. 212-598-4000
Press release: January 15, 2004; event: January 20, 2004
CORE to hold teach-in, demand end to "Eco-Imperialism"; Greenpeace co-founder to denounce his former colleagues

I was encouraged by a recent article in the Wall Street Journal saying that an epidemic of BSE-related human disease in the United Kingdom is probably not going to happen. The article cited UK Department of Health statistics indicating that the number of cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD), the human version of BSE, had likely peaked, and might well be on the decline. In 2000, twenty-eight Britons died of vCJD, and that number decreased to seventeen in '02 and eighteen in '03.

One cow known to be infected with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a.k.a. mad cow disease) has set-off such a blizzard of comment that one hates to imagine what the response would have been had there been the 100,000 to 200,000 infected cows, which was the experience in the United Kingdom. A Rip Van Winkle who took a brief month or two snooze before Thanksgiving and awoke amidst the extended media response would have wondered what public health catastrophe had blighted our fair land, driving some people away from meat consumption and mainstream agriculture.

"I plan to serve beef for my Christmas dinner," [Secretary of Agriculture Ann M.] Veneman said, "and we remain confident in the safety of our food supply."
Responded [former USDA veterinarian Lester] Friedlander: "She might as well kiss her (behind) goodbye, then."
From an article by Steve Mitchell of UPI, December 23, 2003