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In 2011 the Danish government, concerned about the population's obesity rate and heart disease, imposed a tax on saturated fats and the foods that contain them such as butter, whole fat milk and red meats. But the tax imposed some unexpected burdens on businesses, and was revoked by the beginning of 2013.

Now, on the basis of a recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (EJCN)...

They won t give up, no matter the science or the votes. Anti-technology activists opposed to genetically-engineered food were defeated at the ballot box in California last year, but they re not giving up. A propaganda piece in The New York Times, in the guise of a news story, highlights how major food companies, including Wal-Mart, held a meeting in Washington with advocacy groups who continue to promote the cause of mandatory labeling. The Times claims that the defeat of California s Proposition 37 hasn t quelled the demand for labeling, but has instead spawned a ballot initiative in Washington...

The AAAS board issued a statement claiming that foods containing ingredients from genetically modified (GM) crops pose no greater risk than the same foods made from crops modified by conventional plant breeding techniques and that legally mandating labels on GM foods could therefore mislead and falsely alarm consumers.

The AAAS statement further reads respected scientific and medical organizations have concluded that biotech foods are safe, including: National Academy of Sciences, American Council on Science and Health, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, World Health Organization.

Anti-science groups went into a rage, including Dr. Oz's favorite anti-science...

Americans should focus on achieving a “balance” in their diets, stressed First Lady Michelle Obama at a press meeting celebrating the first-year anniversary of her anti-obesity Let’s Move campaign yesterday.

When asked if it seemed hypocritical that the White House served kielbasa, bratwurst, deep-dish pizza and cheeseburgers at its Super Bowl party, Mrs. Obama countered that salads were also available and that these foods should be regarded as treats rather than as part of a daily food regimen.

The First Lady echoes a message ACSH has been promulgating for decades: We should not demonize food as either good or bad. All foods when served in moderation as part of a...

Recently, Mommy-bloggers paid by the organic industry have been hitting the scientific and corporate communities quite hard, with fear campaigns and if you love your children guilt trips. Even Hollywood stars are reading from the Organic is what good mothers do script.

Ordinarily, eco-religious feel-good pulp from the privileged classes is better left ignored ¦ until mainstream media pick up on them and the marketing managers at large food and restaurant corporations begin to bow to FoodBabeArmy email campaigns.

When I read a rather weak, low-ball piece in Mamavation (Changing Lives One Mom at a Time) called The top 10 reasons to feed your family organic, I...

A feature posted in September by ProCon.org on arguments for and against milk consumption notes the positive view of ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava from ACSH's 2001 publication on The Role of Milk in Your Diet:

"Milk is a nutritious food. It is an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus, riboflavin, and vitamin D and a good source of protein, vitamin A, potassium, and several B vitamins. Milk and foods made from milk (yogurt and cheese) make up one of the five basic food groups included in the U.S. government's Food Guide Pyramid. The Pyramid calls for two to three servings from this group daily."

According to an article in today s Wall Street Journal, the Nestle unit that is being inspected for the origin of the E. coli bacteria found in their Toll House Cookies refused FDA requests for access to pest-control records, environmental-testing programs, and other information during regular inspections over the past five years: David Elder, director of regional operations at the FDA s Office of Regulatory Affairs, said many food companies do open their records to inspectors. But the agency, he said, doesn t have explicit authority to access any records during regular food-safety inspections, with the exception of infant formula, seafood, juices, and low-acid canned food.

The key word here is request, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. Why shouldn t the FDA be able...

As members of a primarily urban society, most Americans have very little or no contact with the sources or methods of producing their foods. Their understandable ignorance has the unfortunate consequence of leaving them vulnerable to misinformation about food and nutrition. Nowhere is this vulnerability more obvious than with respect to genetic engineering, usually misnamed genetic modification.

In an article in the January 11 New York Times, Jane Brody cites a survey from the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University of 1,200 Americans. That survey found that 43% of respondents believed that ordinary tomatoes do not contain genes.

This level of...

Iowa State Press describes Thomas R. DeGregori's latest book thusly:

Origins of the Organic Agriculture Debate takes a historical look at two contrasting streams of ideas. The first view comprises the flow of ideas in chemistry and biology that have created the conditions for modern medicine, modern food production, and the biotechnological revolution. The second view is the "vitalist" reaction to the rise of modern science and the resulting rejection of modern agriculture.

Contemporary proponents of "organic" agriculture and the anti-genetically-modified-food movement believe that "pure" food confers some special kind of virtue both on those who produce it and those who...

967632_38993259Earlier this month, Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced a bill that would ban BPA from food and beverage containers cleverly titled the Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2014. Angela Logomasini, a Senior Fellow at the Independent Women s Forum and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, co-founder of the Culture of Alarmism and co-editor of Safe Chemical Policy News wrote an...