“People with food allergies live under a constant threat, in a society that is still poorly informed about the condition,” writes New Yorker medical correspondent Jerome Groopman about this rapidly evolving branch of immunology. His article traces the history of food allergy studies, which at first recommended restricting common allergens—milk, corn, soy, citrus, wheat, eggs, peanuts, and fish—during pregnancy, nursing and the first two years of life. In theory, according to Groopman, this measure would keep babies “away from potentially allergenic foods until their immune systems had developed sufficiently.” But the increasing number of diagnosed food allergies in the United States and other developed countries has since cast doubt on this practice, leading specialists to consider alternative causations and subsequently overturn the infant dietary advice issued in 2000 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. “From an evolutionary-biology point of view, food allergy makes no sense at all. It seems pretty clear that…
Category Archives Media Coverage
This article summarizes recent research, including a November 2010 literature review in The Mayo Clinic Proceedings, that has questioned the effectiveness and safety of energy beverages (E.B.’s). According to Times journalist Jane Brody, the Mayo study “noted that the drinks contain high levels of caffeine and warned that certain susceptible people risk dangerous, even life-threatening effects on blood pressure, heart rate and brain function.” In addition to recording “four documented cases of caffeine-associated death,” the authors also expressed concern about “whether long-term use of E.B.’s by [teens and young adults] will translate into deleterious effects later.” As one of the contributors, Troy Tuttle, reportedly said in an interview, “Almost all the studies done on energy drinks have involved small sample sizes of young, healthy individuals in whom you’re unlikely to see short-term ill effects. But what about the long term? What about liver and cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes?”…
“Each year, federal inspectors find illegal levels of antibiotics in hundreds of older dairy cows bound for the slaughterhouse,” opens this article about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to begin testing milk from farms “that had repeatedly sold cows tainted by drug residue.” Concerned that “the same poor management practices which led to the meat residues may also result in drug residues in milk,” FDA evidently singled out approximately 900 dairy farms for testing that would include “two dozen antibiotics beyond the six that are typically tested for.” The new protocol also covered flunixin, “a painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug popular on dairy farms . . . which often shows up in the slaughterhouse testing.” Although the plan reportedly drew support from consumer advocates like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, it prompted a backlash from dairy farmers and state regulators who objected to the week-long…
This article focuses on the Los Angeles City Council’s unanimous decision last month to permanently extend a moratorium on new stand alone fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles, where the city Department of Health estimates that 30 percent of the residents are obese. Although the ban allows exceptions for “mom-and-pop” businesses and shopping center eateries, it ultimately seeks to prevent additions to the 1,000 preexisting fast-food joints “in the 30 or square miles of South Los Angeles covered by the regulations.” According to Times writer Jennifer Medina, these rules “are meant to encourage healthier neighborhood dining options,” such as “sit-down restaurants, produce-filled grocery stores and takeout meals that center on salad rather than fries.” But the move also represents the first time a city has prohibited new fast-food restaurants “as part of a public health effort,” raising questions about whether the approach will actually lower obesity, heart disease and diabetes…
“I don’t want any more government interference than the next guy, but I believe that the precedent has already been set for successful government intervention on behalf of improving our health,” writes Hanover College Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology Professor Bryant Stamford in the first of a two-part article comparing obesity prevention tactics to federal curbs on tobacco advertising. Acknowledging the public outcry against fast-food incentive bans, Stamford suggests that the government would not set “a dangerous precedent” insofar as it has already made a concerted effort to stymie youth tobacco use with product warnings and advertisement restrictions. Without these measures, he claims, “the cigarette industry would continue to run roughshod over the American public with the specific purpose of capturing us when we are young, addicting us and ensuring that the majority of the addicted will be customers for life.” For Stamford, the parallels between the tobacco and fast food…
“As crime sagas go, a scheme rigged by a sophisticated cartel of global traders has all the right blockbuster elements: clandestine movements of illegal substances through a network of co-operatives in Asia, a German conglomerate, jet-setting executives, doctored laboratory reports, high-profile takedowns and fearful turncoats,” opens Globe and Mail food reporter Jessica Leeder in this exposé tracing the honey market from Chinese beekeepers, who are allegedly “notorious” for using banned antibiotics and diluting their products, to North America, where they are “baked into everything from breakfast cereals to cookies and mixed into sauces and cough drops.” Leeder claims that imported honey sold in North America “is more likely to be stamped as Indonesian, Malaysian or Taiwanese, due to a growing multimillion dollar laundering system designed to keep the endless supply of cheap and often contaminated Chinese honey moving into the U.S., where tariffs have been implemented to staunch the flow…
Authored by the co-founders of the Zagat Survey, this New York Times op-ed examines a recent spate of class action lawsuits arguing that many prominent restaurateurs, including Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali, “are routinely cheating their workers by confiscating waiters’ and busboys’ tips to share with managers and other ineligible employees.” Tim and Nina Zagat, however, question whether these culinary giants would continue to intentionally cheat employees while facing costly lawsuits and “draconian penalties” under the state’s new Wage Theft Protection Act. “The biggest worry for restaurateurs, though, is that one error—for example, just one ineligible employee found sharing in tips—could cost a restaurant its ‘tip credit,’ which permits restaurants to pay their waiters less than the full minimum wage because the state assumes that they get $2.60 an hour in tips,” write the Zagats. “If a restaurant’s tip credit is yanked, it has to repay that much for every…
“Essentially, we have a system where wealthy farmers feed the poor crap and poor farmers feed the wealthy high-quality food,” food activist Michael Pollan told Newsweek society editor Lisa Miller in this article examining the gap in the availability of nutritious, fresh and organic foods between rich and lower-income Americans. Noting that “in hard times, food has always marked a bright border between the haves and the have-nots,” Miller opines that healthier foods “have become luxury goods that only some can afford” while “highly caloric, mass-produced foods like pizza and packaged cakes” are staples for the poorest Americans, many of whom are obese and live in “food deserts” that lack supermarkets stocked with nutritious fare. “Corpulence used to signify the prosperity of a few but has now become a marker of poverty,” Miller writes. She quotes recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that show 17 percent of Americans…
The Guardian has published an exclusive exposé claiming that fast-food companies and other industry interests helped write U.K. health policy at the behest of the secretary of state for health. According to the November 12, 2010, article, “In an overhaul of public health, said by campaign groups to be the equivalent of handing smoking policy over to the tobacco industry, health secretary Andrew Lansley has set up five ‘responsibility deal’ networks with business, co-chaired by ministers, to come up with policies.” The newspaper has anticipated that these policies will feature in “the public health white paper due in the next month.” Although it acknowledges the involvement of consumer groups such as Which?, Cancer Research UK and the Faculty of Public Health, the article alleges that these responsibility deal networks are “dominated by food and alcohol industry members,” including trade associations, food manufacturers, beverage companies, and fast-food restaurants. Lansley has also reportedly…
The American Association of University Professors has published the November-December 2010 issue of its flagship journal, Academe, which features an interview with New York University Professor Marion Nestle about “conflicts of interest between food companies and academics, the difference between food products and food, and the problem with pomegranates.” According to Nestle, conflicts of interest in the food sciences “are rampant but rarely recognized as such,” with many universities “actively” seeking support from food and beverage companies. “Most food advocates have no idea what kind of teaching or sponsorship occurs in colleges of agriculture, nutrition departments, or science departments focused on biotechnology,” notes Nestle, who warns that industry ties could have “classic chilling effects on critical thinking about conflicts of interest.” She also claims that“[s]ponsorship almost invariably predicts the results of research,” citing industry-sponsored studies that “almost never” find a link between “habitual consumption of soft drinks and obesity.” “In…
