A recent study has suggested that non-obese individuals are better able to regulate their cravings to consume fattening foods than those who are obese. Kathleen Page, et al., “Circulating glucose levels modulate neural control of desire for high-calorie foods in humans,” Journal of Clinical Investigation, September 19, 2011. Researchers from Yale University and the University of Southern California apparently studied brain scans of nine thin and five obese subjects as they viewed images of high-calorie foods, low-calorie foods, and non-food items during times when they had normal and low blood sugar levels. Researchers found that non-obese participants shown pictures of high-calorie foods had increased activity in the part of their brains used for impulse control while obese people showed little activity in that part of the brain. According to the study, “higher circulating glucose levels predicted greater medial prefrontal cortex activation, and this response was absent in obese subjects. These…
Category Archives Issue 410
A new Environmental Health Perspectives paper discusses a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee’s recent conclusion that the evidence is too inconclusive to associate children’s consumption of artificial colors in food with hyperactivity or to recommend warning labels. Titled “Synthetic Food Colors and Neurobehavioral Hazards: The View from Environmental Health Research,” the paper suggests that if FDA had approached the issue from an environmental health perspective and broadened its inquiry to consider a range of adverse effects, current research findings could have supported a different outcome. The author notes that the review confined itself “to the clinical diagnosis of hyperactivity . . . rather than asking the broader environmental question of behavioral effects in the general population; it failed to recognize the significance of vulnerable subpopulations; it misinterpreted the meaning of effect size as a criterion of risk.” The article concludes that scientific risk reviews with “too narrow a…
WSJ Reporter Ashby Jones provides an overview of the recent spate of lawsuits challenging food makers’ claims that their products are “All Natural” or “100% Natural.” Without an official Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definition of the term, determining whether such product claims constitute fraud can be difficult, according to lawyers such as Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Stephen Gardner, who was quoted as saying, “We badly want them to provide some clarity on the issue, but they’ve repeatedly failed to do anything.” The article notes how FDA muddied the waters for products containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) by announcing in 2008 that it is not “natural” and then later pronouncing that it actually depends on how synthetic ingredients are used to make the HFCS. Details about the FDA’s HFCS actions appear in Issues 255 and 266 of this Update. An FDA spokesperson acknowledged that the agency has…
The author of the 1971 bestseller Diet for a Small Planet has authored an essay that examines how global agriculture has changed since then. While Francis Moore Lappé notes that 1 billion people are hungry and agribusiness is concentrated in few hands—“in the United States, by 2000, just ten corporations—with boards totaling only 138 people—had come to account for half of US food and beverage sales”—a global grass-roots food movement “has been gaining energy and breadth for at least four decades.” Among other matters, Moore Lappé discusses growing popular opposition to genetically modified crops and increases in connectivity through community-supported agriculture programs and farmers’ markets. Included with the essay are responses authored by Vandana Shiva, “Resisting the Corporate Theft of Seeds”; Eric Schlosser, “It’s Not Just About Food”; Raj Patel, “Why Hunger Is Still With Us”; and Michael Pollan, “How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System.” Shiva…
The Public Health Law Center at William Mitchell College of Law has announced the launch of a series of free webinars that will address issues relating to tobacco control, obesity prevention, worksite wellness, active living, and public health legislation. Scheduled for October 5, 2011, the first webinar will feature staff attorneys presenting on “Drafting Effective Public Health Policies.” A number of the health center’s staff attorneys focus on tobacco-control issues and projects; listed as a consulting attorney is Mark Perstchuk, who is the past president and executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.
The Breast Cancer Fund (BCF) recently issued a report alleging that six canned meal products marketed to children contain bisphenol A (BPA) at levels averaging 49 parts per billion (ppb). Researchers reportedly sent 12 items total to an independent laboratory, which pureed the can contents in “BPA-free materials” and assessed BPA levels using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. According to the results, the sampled soups averaged 77.5 ppb of BPA and the meals 21 ppb, with one canned soup purportedly registering a BPA level of 148 ppb. “The levels of BPA we found in these canned foods marketed to children are of great concern,” states BFC in its report. “While a child-sized serving (about two-thirds of an adult-sized serving, according to Kaiser Permanente’s serving size estimates for children) may result in BPA exposure at a level of concern, an adult-sized serving given to a child would result in even higher BPA exposure.”…
The California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) has released a September 21, 2011, report claiming that federal agricultural subsidies are largely allocated to commodity crops such as soybeans and corn instead of fresh produce. Titled “Apples to Twinkies: Comparing Federal Subsidies of Fresh Produce and Junk Food,” the report alleges that, of the $260 billion spent on agriculture between 1995 and 2010, $16.9 billion subsidized “four common food additives—corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oils (which are frequently processed further into hydrogenated vegetable oils),” while only $262 million went to apple crops, “the only significant federal subsidy of fresh fruits or vegetables.” According to CALPIRG, these allocations are the equivalent of giving individual taxpayers enough to buy 19 Twinkies® each year “but less than a quarter of one Red Delicious apple apiece.” “This wasteful spending not only squanders taxpayer dollars: by fueling the crisis of childhood…
While settlement terms are apparently confidential, a high-end bottled water company has reportedly settled its claims against a company that supplied bottles which reacted to the water by causing foaming and a poor taste. Penta Water Co. v. Zuckerman-Honickman, Inc., No. 09-2633 (E.D. Pa., dismissed with prejudice September 21, 2011). The water company evidently switched to the defendant’s bottles in conjunction with the launch of a campaign intended to broaden its customer base beyond athletes, celebrities and health food consumers. The alleged bottle defect forced the plaintiff to halt the campaign, close its manufacturing plant and undertake “crisis management.” The packaging company and the water bottler have both reportedly undergone bankruptcy proceedings. See Law360, September 22, 2011.
A California resident has filed a putative class action against Brinker International, Inc., alleging that when she worked for one of its Chili’s Grill & Bar Restaurants she was not paid minimum wage, because the company “fraudulently and maliciously caused Plaintiff and Class members to make up the restaurants’ cash shortages.” Eldred v. Brinker Int’l, Inc., No. 56-2011-00403808 (Cal. Super. Ct., Ventura Cty., filed September 15, 2011). According to the complaint, if a customer leaves the restaurant without paying or does not leave enough money to pay the entire tab, “it is defendant’s corporate policy to either inform the server that he or she has to pay for the walkout or that server will be written up and if it happens again that server may be terminated. Defendant uses the threat of termination to induce class members to pay for walkouts out of their own money.” Alleging failure to pay minimum…
Seeking to represent a nationwide class of consumers, a California resident has filed a consumer fraud class action against the Balance Bar Co., challenging its “All Natural” claims in light of product ingredients such as ascorbic acid, cocoa (processed with alkali), glycerine, sodium citrate, and xanthan gum. Sethavanish v. Balance Bar Co., No. 11-4547 (N.D. Cal., filed September 13, 2011). She claims that she purchased different Balance Bar products since 2007 relying on the “All Natural” representations and paying more for the products “than she would have had to pay for other products that were not all natural.” In her complaint, she notes that the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the term “natural,” but contends that the agency “has established a policy defining the outer boundaries of the use of that term by clarifying that a product is not natural if it contains color, artificial flavors, or synthetic…
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