The Economist, June 17, 2010 Share

FAST-FOOD firms have to be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly lambast them for peddling food that makes people fat. Critics even complain that McDonald’s, whose golden arches symbolise calorie excess, should not have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope with and to deflect. But not perhaps for much longer. The burger business faces more pressure from regulators at a time when it is already adapting strategies in response to shifts in the global …

The Huffington Post, June 23, 2010
Taking a bold step forward for public health and well-being, today President Obama announced his “Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.”
Now if that doesn’t strike you as bold or important, allow us to take you down memory lane for a moment. Remember the old patch you’d get in physical education class back in the day for doing a certain number of push-ups, sit-ups and running a mile in a certain time? Sometimes it felt like you just got it for showing up because the tests seemed so …

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are due to vote on new legislation on food labelling – determining what nutritional information should be displayed on the packaging of items such as snacks, soft drinks and ready-meals. The vote has been the subject of a major lobby campaign by the food industry, opposed to mandatory information on food packaging.
The Confederation of the food and drink industries of the EU (CIAA) has spent €1 billion opposing proposals for front-of-pack ‘traffic light’ labels – which have a green symbol for healthy options …

Houston Chronicle, Cindy George, June 15, 2010
Pediatricians could save some kids from a lifetime of obesity if they were willing to have uncomfortable, but necessary, conversations with parents of overweight infants, new research shows.
That’s because obesity can be diagnosed as early as 6 months, according to a recent University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston analysis published online in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Researchers found that 16 percent of 6-month-olds treated at the UTMB pediatric clinic were obese and those children had a greater chance of being overweight 2-year-olds. Still, only …

ShareThe Dietary Guidelines for Americans report 2010 is out! In contrast to some of the advise given in the 2005 version, this one seems to be much more evidence-based and contains some progressive changes in recommendations that are independent of pressures of the major food industries.
I’ve summarized some of the major points below, for more information read the short Excecutive Summary.

SoFAS (added sugars and solid fats) contribute approximately 35 percent of calories to the American diet

Reduce the incidence and prevalence of overweight and obesity of the US population …

The Wall Street Journal Blog, Katherine Hobson, June 2, 2010
The Associated Press wrote today about employers that are offering their workers financial incentives for losing weight. Too bad they’re unlikely to work, the AP quotes some experts as saying, noting that while cash rewards have been shown to increase smoking quit rates, losing weight is a whole different ballgame. For one thing, you can toss your cigs forever, but food is a necessity.
Still, we were curious about how other strategies that have been used against tobacco might apply to the obesity …

Health ministers, alarmed at the growing number of obese children, agreed on Thursday to try to reduce children’s consumption of junk food and soft drinks by asking member states to restrict advertising and marketing.
Reuters, Stephani Nebehay, May 20, 2010
The global recommendations on marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children are guidelines to the 193 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Diets containing large amounts of fat, sugar or salt contribute to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers, which cause 60 percent of all deaths …

ZDnet, Dana Blankenhorn | May 4, 2010,
To all the cries of “big brother” and “nanny state” that come here whenever I touch on preventable causes of death and campaigns to fight back I have one word.
Oregon.
A study published in Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine this week describes a childhood obesity epidemic that has gotten noticeably worse since 2003.
Nearly one-third of all school-age children in 2007 were overweight, the study says, and nearly 22% of Mississippi kids were clinically obese, headed for a short life of heart attacks and diabetes.
The exception? Oregon, …

Los Angeles Times, Melissa Healy and Andrew Zajac, April 21, 2010
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced a gradual but potentially far-reaching effort to reduce the amount of salt Americans consume in a bid to combat high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and other health problems that have soared to near-epidemic proportions.
The FDA’s efforts will begin by seeking voluntary cutbacks by the food industry. But ultimately, the agency may resort to regulating acceptable levels of sodium in food and beverages.
“Nothing is off the table,” said FDA spokeswoman Meghan Scott. …

Neville Rigby, April 16, The Guardian
The mere mention of trans fats – an unhealthy by-product in our industrialised diets – leaves many respectable scientists fulminating, food manufacturers shrugging and pleading that they’ve done their best, while responsible government agencies and some of their scientific advisers look the other way while the media headlines shriek about killer fat.

Yet how many of us realise that trans fats turn up in all kinds of funny places – and very frequently in the frying pan at home. Read the labels and wherever they mention …