January 28, 2012, Dayton Daily News, Cornelius Frolik
About 78,000 people in the Miami Valley live in poorer areas that lack markets that sell affordable and nutritious food, and low-income residents and those without post-secondary educations have some of the highest obesity rates in the state.
Experts said the struggling economy is likely contributing to bulging waistlines, because consumers are spending less on food and some are sacrificing nutrition for the sake of cost. Health experts said obesity is an “epidemic” that often has grave medical consequences.
“A lot of people are digging …

January 25, 2012, Houston Chronicle
School lunches, long saddled with an unhealthy reputation, are getting a makeover.Instead of salt-doused fried foods, highly processed white bread and sugar-laden desserts, cafeteria trays will be carrying whole wheat pizza, leafy green and orange vegetables and fresh fruit.The changes, announced Wednesday by first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, mark the first major nutritional adjustment to the $11 billion school meal program in 15 years.
Under the new guidelines, which were directed by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools must limit calories, trans fat and sodium, …

January 9, 2012, Blisstree.com, Deborah Dunham
As the battle to point the finger at someone for our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic continues, one top New York City Department of Health official now says that the free breakfast program in city schools is to blame. It’s what she says is causing poor kids to get fat, but in reality, she couldn’t be more wrong–or more insensitive.
Director of Community Epidemiology, Gretchen Van Wye said the in-class meals that these students receive each morning at certain urban schools is resulting in over 21% of …

December 29, 2011, Reuters
Older Icelandic men who remember chugging a lot of milk in their teens are three times as likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as more-moderate milk drinkers, researchers have found.
That makes them wonder whether the years around puberty, during which the prostate matures, could be a time of heightened vulnerability for the gland.
“We believe that our data are indeed solid and provide important evidence for the role of adolescence as a ‘sensitive period’ for prostate cancer development,” Johanna Torfadottir, a nutrition scientist and a graduate …

December 29, 2011, Fox News
Older people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B, C, D, and E in their blood do better on cognitive tests than those with lower levels, according to a new study.
On the other hand, trans fats were found to hurt cognition.
Together, the omega-3s, vitamins, and trans fat levels, as measured by a recently developed blood test, accounted for over 70 percent of the variation in the scores of cognitive tests taken by the study subjects, the researchers reported.
“This is a study where we …

 December 25, 2011, The Star Online.
The beneficial effects of functional foods must be scientifically substantiated.
A GREAT deal of attention is now given to the potential health significance of components other than nutrients that are found in foods. These bioactive components have been found to be able to serve physiological roles beyond provisions of simple nutrient requirements, and even reduce risk to chronic diseases.
Foods containing such components have been termed “functional foods”.
Consumers are now more health conscious, especially in view of the increase in diet-related chronic diseases. There would certainly be …

December 21, 2011, Jeremy Laurance, The Independent
The tobacco industry is accused today of misleading smokers over the safety of additives in cigarettes.

Based on a new analysis of data used by the US cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris a decade ago, which found the additives were safe, University of California researchers claim the firm’s research “obscured findings of toxicity”.
The original study by Philip Morris, called Project Mix, resulted in the publication of four papers in a scientific journal that concluded there was “no evidence of substantial toxicity” associated with the additives studied.
More …

December 21, 2011, Los Angeles Times, Shari Roan
Feeding young babies solid foods such as crackers, cereals and bread, which tend to be high in salt, may set them up for a lifelong preference for salt, researchers reported Tuesday.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that efforts to reduce salt intake among Americans should begin early in life.
It is even possible, the authors said, that infancy contains a “sensitivity window” in which exposure to certain foods and tastes programs the brain to desire them in the future.
Americans’ …

December 15, 2011. LiveScience.com, Joseph Brownstein, MyHealthNewsDaily
Displaying the amount of time you’d need to jog in order to burn off the calories from a sugary drink, rather than showing a calorie count, may be more effective in dissuading you from consuming those beverages, new research suggests.
Researchers observed teenagers at stores in West Baltimore, where signs displayed either calorie counts, calorie counts as a percent of recommended daily calorie intake, or the time spent jogging that would be needed to burn off those calories. While all led teenagers to purchase fewer …

December 14, 2011, Brittni Johnson, Winter Park/Maitland observer
For Marva Forbes and her family, dinner was coming home, hot oil in a pan and frying up some chicken.
“As a rule,” she said.
There was also lots of pizza, McDonald’s and chips and candy for snacks. Not much thought went behind planning meals for her family, which includes three of her children and two grandchildren.
“Our eating habits were: we just ate,” Forbes said.
That is until four years ago, when her 6-year-old grandson started going to Winter Park Day Nursery. The nursery, which offers free …