A recent animal study has allegedly identified a new immunological connection between obesity and asthma involving “inflammasome activation and production of cytokine interleukin-17 by innate lymphoid cells in the lung,” according to a concurrent editorial published in Nature Medicine. Hye Young Kim, et al., “Interleukin-17-producing innate lymphoid cells and the NLRP3 inflammasome facilitate obesity-associated airway hyperreactivity,” Nature Medicine, January 2014. After studying mice that were raised on a high-fat diet until they became obese and developed asthma, researchers with Boston Children’s Hospital apparently reported that “obesity appeared to alter the innate immune system—the body’s first responder to infection—in several ways to cause lung inflammation.” In particular, they noted that, compared with non-obese mice, “the lungs of the obese, asthmatic mice had several differences”: (i) “High levels of the protein interleukin 17A (IL17A), a cytokine (signaling molecule) associated with several inflammatory conditions”; (ii) “Increased numbers of the immune cells that produce…
Category Archives Issue 509
A recent systematic review of the current scientific literature “assigning obesity to the spectrum of neuropsychological diseases” has proposed “an integrative model” for understanding obesity not simply as a “deliberately flawed food intake behavior with the consequence of dysbalanced energetic uptake and expenditure,” but as a complex condition “linked to neurobio- logical and psychological aspects such as mood status, addictive behavior, motivation and reward processing as well as coping with psychosocial stress.” Kamila Jauch-Chara and Kerstin Oltmanns, “Obesity – A neuropsychological disease? Systematic review and neuropsychological model,” Progress in Neurobiology, January 2014. To this end, the reviewers highlight obesity research concluding, among other things, that (i) “chronic stress enhances food intake,” with both humans and animals choosing energy dense foods “to blunt their stress responses”; (ii) “food intake activates the reward circuitry” in the brain, increasing dopamine concentrations that correlate “positively with the rating of food pleasantness in humans”; and…
After analyzing reporting biases for 17 systematic reviews (SRs) assessing the association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and weight gain, EU researchers have allegedly concluded that financial conflicts of interest may influence the outcomes of such studies. Maira Bes-Rastrollo, et al., “Financial Conflicts of Interest and Reporting Bias Regarding the Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews,” PLoS Medicine, December 2013. Selected from PubMed, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases, the SRs under scrutiny were classified as either finding a positive association between SSB consumption and weight gain or finding no association at all. “Among those reviews without any reported conflict of interest, 83.3% of the conclusions (10/12) were that SSB consumption could be a potential risk factor for weight gain,” report the study’s authors. “In contrast, the same percentage of conclusions, 83.3% (5/6), of those SRs disclosing some financial conflict of interest with the food…
York University researchers have published a qualitative study examining “how obese women with and without binge eating disorder (BED) experience overeating in relation to the DSM-5 [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual] symptoms of addiction.” Claire Curtis & Caroline Davis, “A Qualitative Study of Binge Eating and Obesity From an Addiction Perspective,” Eating Disorders, January 2014. According to the study, the recently-published DSM-5 includes a new category for “Addiction and Related Disorders” that addresses “both substance use disorders (SUDs) and non-substance addictions” in addition to providing new diagnostic guidelines. Using these expanded criteria, the authors interviewed 12 obese women with BED and 12 without BED, concluding that “both groups of women endorsed DSM-5 SUD criteria (in relation to food) in their narratives,” although there were “visible qualitative differences in how the women experienced these symptoms.” More specifically, Curtis and Davis reported that while both groups expressed a desire to reduce their food…
A recent New York Times article highlights how groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest as well as individual consumers have harnessed the power of social media to bring their concerns directly to food companies. Titled “Social Media as a Megaphone to Pressure the Food Industry,” the article describes several instances in which consumer-backed petitions circulated on Facebook, Twitter or other platforms have purportedly influenced food company policies, resulting in product reformulations or labeling changes. Speaking with one spokesperson for Kraft Foods Group, Times writer Stephanie Strohm specifically notes that one of the challenges facing companies “when confronted by consumers demanding change is getting them to understand how complicated that change can be ... Food companies must work with suppliers to determine what’s possible, then supplies have to make the new ingredient in bulk.” These changes can also involve regulators if replacement ingredients require approval for…
As many as 1,700 people in Japan have reportedly become ill after eating frozen food allegedly contaminated with the pesticide malathion, a chemical used to kill aphids in corn and rice fields. The food, which included frozen pizza and chicken nuggets and apparently contained 2.6 million times the permitted level of the pesticide, has been traced to manufacturer Maruha Nichiro Holdings. The company has issued a public apology and recalled some 6.4 million packages of frozen food—1.2 million of which have reportedly been recovered. Authorities say it is unclear how the items became contaminated and will continue to investigate. See BBCNewsAsia.com and YahooNewsCanada.com, January 8, 2014. Issue 509
A group of international health experts has launched a new campaign intended to reduce the amount of sugar in processed foods and beverages sold in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Modeled after the Consensus Action on Salt and Health and chaired by Queen Mary University of London Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine Graham MacGregor, Action on Sugar includes a number of U.K. scientists and academics as well as National Obesity Forum Chair David Haslam and University of California, San Francisco, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Robert Lustig. The campaigners aim to set gradual sugar reduction targets for the food industry similar to those established for salt content, warning that failure to meet such targets would prompt the group to pursue legislation or a sugar tax. They also seek to (i) educate the public about “the impact of sugar on their health,” (ii) identify children as “a particularly vulnerable group whose health is more…
Oregon Attorney General (AG) Ellen Rosenblum has reportedly filed an action in state court against the companies that make and promote 5-hour ENERGY®, a drink purportedly linked to adverse incidents including fatalities, seeking to enforce her demand for information about the product. The lawsuit against Innovation Ventures, Living Essentials and Microdose Sales, filed in Multnomah County Court, apparently seeks enforcement of the AG’s Civil Investigative Demand for information under the state’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act (UTPA). According to a news source, the AG says she has “reason to believe that respondents have made misleading statements regarding 5-hour Energy in three issue areas: (1) whether users experience ‘no crash’ when using the product; (2) a ‘Doctors Recommend’ advertising campaign; and (3) the product’s suitability for children, all potentially in violation of . . . the UTPA.” She seeks an order requiring the respondents to respond to her demand with unredacted documents,…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a complaint against Diamond Foods, Inc. and two former executives alleging that the company “materially misstated its financial results in multiple SEC Forms 10-Q, 10-K, and 8-K from at least February 2010 and ending in September 2011. In this timeframe, Diamond reported artificially inflated earnings per share that beat Wall Street earnings estimates on a quarterly and yearly basis.” SEC v. Diamond Foods, Inc., No. 14-0123 (N.D. Cal., filed January 9, 2014). Information about shareholder litigation involving the alleged price manipulation and financial misstatements at the root of the SEC’s complaint appear in Issue 464 of this Update. According to the SEC, Diamond Foods has agreed to pay $5 million to settle the charges, and former CEO Michael Mendes has agreed to a settlement. The claims against former CFO Steven Neil continue. SEC claims that increasing walnut prices and pressure to meet…
In a January 6, 2014, letter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responded to three federal courts that stayed litigation involving whether food companies deceive consumers by labeling products with genetically modified (GM) ingredients as “natural,” stating that it would not make a determination on the issue to resolve a private litigation-related request. Cox v. Gruma Corp., No. 12-6502 (N.D. Cal.); Barnes v. Campbell Soup Co., No. 12-5185 (N.D. Cal.); In re General Mills, Inc. Kix Cereal Litig., No. 12-0249 (D.N.J.). Describing the complexities of determining what “natural” means in both a broad and narrow context and the variety of stakeholder interests involved, FDA stated that if it “were inclined to revoke, amend, or add to [current] policy, we would likely embark on a public process” and would have to involve other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Because the agency is devoting significant resources to Food Safety Modernization Act…
12
