Posts

June 19, 2013

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It is estimated that 165 million children around the world are stunted. That is to say 165 million children are stunted in their growth, development and future potential.

June 17, 2013

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12:19 PM | Height through the millennia

For the last year or so, I have had sitting in my “to blog” pile a 2004 New Yorker article about the increasing height of Europeans relative to Americans. It has a lot of interesting content. It talks about how height peaked in Europe around 800 AD, before declining through to 1700 (largely associated with [...]The post Height through the millennia appeared first on Evolving Economics.

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7:00 AM | More bad science in the service of anti-GMO activism

I never used to write much about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) before. I still don’t do it that often. For whatever reason, it just hasn’t been on my radar very much. That seems to be changing, however. It’s not because I went seeking this issue out (although I must admit that I first became interested [...]

June 13, 2013

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11:44 AM | CAM Docket: Kardashian Diet Products Klass Action

Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian permit the use of their names and images of their curvaceous bodies to promote “QuickTrim” diet products, a line of dietary supplements making overblown claims typical of the weight loss supplement industry. Their personal testimonies and formidable publicity machine (Kim alone has over 13 million followers on Twitter), “has reportedly [...]

June 11, 2013

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7:00 PM | Meet Camden’s Witnesses to Hunger: Photographing Hope Amid Desolation

This week, a photo exhibit at the headquarters of the Campbell Soup Company marked the debut of the Camden, N.J. site of Drexel’s “Witnesses to Hunger” program. Photos from 10 low-income Camden women were on display to raise issues and challenges associated with food insecurity, as experienced by those who have lived with them. “Witnesses … Continue reading »

June 10, 2013

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1:00 PM | Is obesity prevention as simple as turning off the television and having a nap?

The title of this post is – obviously – a bit provocative. However, swapping your favorite TV show for a quick nap might be more useful than you’d think. Regular readers of Obesity Panacea will know that spending too much …

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12:39 AM | Industrial Food and Evolution

Back in 1748, William Cullen invented the first known refrigeration system at the University of Glasgow. Today, the refrigerator is something many take for granted. Probably, not much thought is given to refrigeration, but when you pause and think about [...]testThe post Industrial Food and Evolution appeared first on Australian Science.

June 07, 2013

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3:35 PM | Now Available: A Chastity Belt for Your Mouth

Is your main problem with dieting that you have a whorish mouth? Instead of saving itself for the truly worthy suitors—the poached lean proteins and steamed vegetables with dressing on the side—does it open up for every corn chip and chicken wing that passes by?Good news, tramp-trap! For only $2,000 plus airfare to Los Angeles, you can have a patch of spiky plastic mesh stitched onto your tongue. Doctor Paul Chugay promises the procedure is quick and easy. You’ll be back at work the […]

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10:30 AM | Best of Our Blogs: June 7, 2013

One of the greatest negative contributors to your health and well-being isn’t just illness, it’s stress. Unfortunately, stress is a household name these days. Everyone seems to be experiencing it on different levels. We’re worried about the future of the world as much as we’re concerned about the future of our children. But no matter [...]

June 06, 2013

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12:12 PM | Kombucha: A symbiotic mix of yeast, bacteria and the naturalistic fallacy

If you grew up in the seventies, you may remember the same food fads as I do. There was the oat bran buzz that was replaced by the wheat germ movement, the family fondue set and the homemade yogurt maker. And for a while I remember my father making what I called “aquarium water” [...]

June 04, 2013

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4:49 PM | Psychiatrists Say Nutrition Is Key To Mood

At a recent meeting of top psychiatrists, nutrition was the hot topic.

June 03, 2013

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2:46 AM | Skepticism About Food (Marketing)

My wife came home with some new chips the other day. We’re always looking for a healthy snack. I have to munch on something salty in order to drink water. I just cannot drink water without help. Anyway, these looked promising. They are the Garden Veggie Crisps made by EatSmart Naturals, a division of Snyder’s [...]

May 30, 2013

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9:30 PM | Google Wants To Turn Happy Users Into A Captive Audience

Delicious Bananas How many calories are in a banana? Google will tell you--but you'll have to stay on a Google site for the answer. Wikimedia Commons Google's plan to become your entire web experience does, improbably, involve bananas. Today Google unveiled a new element of Google Search: you can ask it questions about nutrition, like "how many calories are in an avocado," and the answer will pop right up. No need to click on a link from the search results; the answer you wanted is right there […]

May 29, 2013

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8:00 PM | Eating Yogurt Does Weird Things To Your Brain

Yogurt e Lamponi Diego Cosenza How and why are tougher questions. Does what you eat affect your body more, or your mind? Can you just chow down on Big Macs as far as the brain goes, and be pretty much set? Or is there a deeper connection between thinking and food? A new UCLA study that's one part gross to three parts fascinating has an idea: gut bacteria. Animals have been shown to have their minds altered by gut bacteria--is it the same for humans? Yogurt contains probiotics, a kind of […]

May 28, 2013

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2:12 PM | Everyone Underestimates Fast-Food Calories (But Especially at Subway)

At a McDonald's shareholder meeting last week, a nine-year-old girl accused CEO Don Thompson of sneaky advertising. Stop "tricking kids into eating your food," she demanded, saying that McDonald's ads tell kids to "keep bugging their parents" until they get that Happy Meal. In the world of fast-food chains, though, the golden arches may not be the sneakiest purveyor of excess calories. Diners in all kinds of fast-food restaurants underestimate the calories they're taking in—and the most […]

Block, J., Condon, S., Kleinman, K., Mullen, J., Linakis, S., Rifas-Shiman, S. & Gillman, M. (2013). Consumers' estimation of calorie content at fast food restaurants: cross sectional observational study, BMJ, 346 (may23 3) DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f2907

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7:00 AM | Coconut Oil

In a former life, when I was an Air Force doctor, one of my duties was to give “Healthy Heart” briefings with a script furnished by Air Force experts. It covered the scientific consensus of the time (the early 80s) about diet. It recommended a low fat diet, restricted cholesterol and saturated fat, and demonized [...]

May 24, 2013

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5:00 PM | Spotlight on Red Meat

Overall meat consumption continues to rise in the U.S., and 58% of the meat consumed is red meat. People in the U.S. eat 5 ounces of meat per day on average. Eating a lot of red meat is known to contribute to heart disease, presumably due to the large amount of saturated fats and cholesterol […]

May 23, 2013

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12:55 AM | Should junk food sales be regulated?

Should junk food sales be regulated? Surprisingly, many people don′t seem to think so. At least, that′s the impression I got from reading the comments to Scientific American′s recent satirical piece on the food processing industry (1). Many of the writers actually defended the industry. Some of the commenters seem to believe that we have to thank the food processing industry for feeding all 7 billion people on earth. That credit surely belongs to agriculture; the food […]

May 22, 2013

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12:53 PM | When did eating become so confusing? Tips to simplify your diet

Meg Khan-Karen is a guest blogger for Layman’s Terms Media. Periodically she will post thoughtful articles about leading a healthy lifestyle on a budget. Check out her Facebook page Daily Fit Dish by MegKKFit for nutritious recipes at a reasonable price. By: Meg Khan-Karen, Nutrition blogger Eat Real Food: The Road to a Healthier You There are […]

May 20, 2013

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8:30 PM | "Every time we came up with a new technology for processing food, beginning with fire and then..."

““Every time we came up with a new technology for processing food, beginning with fire and then pottery that allowed for us to cook in water over fires, and then bread making, cheese making — all these technologies made food dramatically more nutritious, easier to digest, tastier…and then something happens. And I date it to about 1880, when food processing takes a fateful wrong turn.”” - Michael Pollan on Science Friday: You Are What You Cooked

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6:33 PM | Evidence Update–Homemade Diet Recipes for Your Pet are Unreliable

I have previously discussed studies of recipes for homemade diets, from books and the internet, which show that these diets are rarely nutritionally adequate or reliable in terms of consistently providing predictable levels of critical nutrients. Recipes for kidney disease, … Continue reading →

May 18, 2013

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4:45 PM | News Round-Up for May 8 through May 18

Here’s another quick round-up of the week’s health and science news you might have missed for the first part of May. Pregnancy and Early Infancy Here’s one more reason to be sure you’re taking prenatal vitamins with folic acid— it may reduce your unborn baby’s risk of heart defects. Ever wondered how port wine stain [...]

May 16, 2013

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1:50 PM | Ending hunger will require increased agricultural investment, urges UK Parliament

In order to end global hunger and malnutrition in this lifetime, the UK government needs to increase investment in agriculture, urges members of the UK parliament in a new report released today. Home Grown Nutrition, produced by the the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development, outlines the key challenges facing food security, and recommendations for overcoming these challenges based on the series of […]

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8:00 AM | Meta-analysing MTHFR and autism

I told you so.I'm talking about the paper by Pu and colleagues* who meta-analysed the currently available literature looking at two SNPs in everyone's favourite Scrabble classic gene, MTHFR in relation to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Said gene controls production of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) which fits very snugly into the whole one carbon metabolism cycle (see here).Love at first sight? @ Wikipedia Regular readers might know that I have a […]

Pu D, Shen Y & Wu J (2013). Association between MTHFR Gene Polymorphisms and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Meta-Analysis., Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, PMID: 23653228

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May 14, 2013

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3:31 PM | The Basics of Good Health is the Subject of New eBook, Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy

While many of us strive to live healthy lives, the task can be daunting and the information overwhelming. Should we be more concerned with our diet or with keeping our weight down? How important is exercise? What kinds of diseases should we really be worried about? In this eBook, “Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy,” we’ve [...]

May 13, 2013

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7:48 AM | The deceptive rebranding of aspects of science-based medicine as “alternative” by naturopaths continues apace

That naturopathy is a veritable cornucopia of quackery mixed with the odd sensible, science-based suggestion here and there is not in doubt, at least not to supporters of science-based medicine (SBM). However, what naturopaths are very good at doing is representing their pseudoscience as somehow being scientific and thus on par with conventional SBM. So [...]

May 11, 2013

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12:17 AM | Weekly Round-Up: ADHD, team sports, summertime dangers, nutrition, parenting styles and more

All right, folks, this will be a whirlwind of links, but if you missed any health or science news this week related to parenting, I’ve hopefully included it below. First there’s been a bunch of news about ADHD, and none of it really that good. First, it’s hard to tell which is worse: that we [...]

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12:17 AM | Weekly Round-Up: ADHD, team sports, summertime dangers, nutrition, parenting styles and more

All right, folks, this will be a whirlwind of links, but if you missed any health or science news this week related to parenting, I’ve hopefully included it below. First there’s been a bunch of news about ADHD, and none of it really that good. First, it’s hard to tell which is worse: that we [...]

May 09, 2013

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2:49 PM | Going the Distance for Healthy Pregnancy in the Bronx

The patients had undergone workups and appointments with hematology experts. Most of them did not have sickle cell disease or other exotic red blood cell problems. What they had was the usual, run-of-the-mill iron deficiency—the kind most pregnant women exhibit in a mild form. But their iron deficiency was so profound, and of such long [...]

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1:53 PM | Feeding the genome

When the Human Genome Project wrapped in 2003, we assumed this ginormous data set would provide the much needed parts-list to fill in the blanks of human health and disease. But in the last ten years it’s become exceedingly clear that things are just not that simple. Yes, our genes are obviously more than a [...]

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