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People who eat a southern diet, heavy on deep-fried foods and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda, are more likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study. This study began in 2002 when researchers began to administer food surveys to more than 20,000 people in the contiguous 48 states, sorting respondents into five different diet styles. The most notable were the southern diet fried foods, processed meats, red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk and the plant-based diet fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

Those who ate six meals per week consisting of foods in the Southern diet had a 41 percent...

Since their implementation in large-scale food production, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which have helped feed many of the world s starving populations have gotten much flak from environmental groups and the organic industry. While it s safe to say that these activists have never been faced with the malnutrition or food shortages present in some countries that rely on GMOs, that has not deterred anti-biotech groups from attempting to ignite a nationwide campaign that calls on the FDA to mandate special labeling for these foods.

The debate has reached a fever pitch in California, which will hold a vote in November to determine if the state will institute...

"Eat, drink and be wary of those who try to scare you about the safety of your food." That was the message issued today by food safety scientists at the American Council on Science and Health who noted that the scare about bioenginered foods was distorted and exaggerated--and completely without scientific merit.

The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) found this week that there was no evidence that biotech Starlink corn caused allergic reactions in those who consumed it.

When tests first showed traces of the corn in Taco Bell tacos, anti-biotechnology activists jumped on the fact that the corn was approved for animal, but not human use. But, as the new CDC finding supports, they went too far in insisting that people who ate the corn would become sick from it. While there...

153697219California s Proposition 37 and Washington s Initiative 522 previously failed at the ballot box, and now Oregon and Colorado will soon be voting on their own GMO-labeling laws Oregon s Measure 92, and Colorado s Initiative 105.

One of Oregon s newspapers, The Eugene Register-Guard, published an editorial this month supporting the labeling law. The editorial states that although peer-reviewed scientific studies have found no evidence that GMOs are unsafe or pose any health risk to humans, it is irrelevant if a problem...

For the past three years -- ever since Swedish scientists found the chemical acrylamide in food (particularly in high-starch foods cooked at elevated temperatures) -- there has been chatter among journalists and environmental advocates about the possible cancer risk of this chemical and the need to alert consumers to the possible dangers associated with eating French fries and chips.

Now the newspaper of record -- the New York Times -- has made the story national news with its Business Day story "A Fright Over Fries: California Wants to Serve a Health Warning with that Order." The article details the efforts of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to require companies like McDonald's, Burger King, Frito-Lay, and six other food companies to put labels on all fries and potato...

As one might have expected, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is taking a wrong-headed approach to solving the problem of the increasing obesity of American youth. According to their latest press release, CSPI thinks that "Replacing soda and junk foods with healthful drinks and snacks...can help combat the skyrocketing rates of obesity in children and teens." Would that it were true.

In their continuing attack on foods of which they disapprove (sodas, candy, chips, and pretty much anything else made by a large food company), CSPI once again is...

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), presents a new tool for determining the environmental impact of the 57,000 typical food products found in UK grocery stores, specifically Tesco. It then meshes that data to show which nutritious foods are produced in a manner sustainable to Earth.

The tool

Of course, the tool is an algorithm designed to look through a large dataset and draw conclusions about the environmental impact of producing a specific food product. This is not an easy task, primarily because our food labels do not indicate the actual percentages of each ingredient; they only list their order, from most to least. The research algorithm generates a “first estimate,” a rough approximation, of...

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. Although it is not a new or unknown compound, acrylamide was not known to be found in foods until Swedish scientists found it a couple of years ago.

Since acrylamide at very high doses causes cancer in lab animals, this discovery ignited a flurry of media attention, and of course a plethora of calls by activist groups for...

Let's mention a few pertinent limitations before getting too deep into the subject. First, despite the significant amount of work and thought that went into this study, it is, at best, a model and, to a large degree, an exercise in Mathmagic – lots of estimates and assumptions.

“It is beyond the scope of this study to examine the nutritional suitability of vegan diets (which exclude any animal products) for dogs and cats.”

 

Second, it concerns itself only with environmental impacts. The nutritional value of a vegan diet for carnivores (that would be the cats) is unknown. As any owner will tell you, dogs are like us: omnivores, so with a few supplements, a vegan diet...

New York, NY -- July 2006. Foods are not cigarettes and should not be treated like them in the courts, according to a new publication by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

In the wake of litigation against cigarette companies, some trial attorneys have tried to make the case that foods, especially those offered by fast food restaurants, are uniquely responsible for the decades-long increase in obesity in the United States. But in a new publication, Foods Are Not Cigarettes: Why Tobacco Lawsuits Are Not a Model for Obesity Lawsuits, physicians and scientists associated with ACSH point out the many ways in which foods and cigarettes differ in their...