The New York Times, Pauline Chen, September 16, 2010
Within days of being accepted into medical school, I started getting asked for medical advice. Even my closest friends, who should have known better, got in on the action.
“Should I take vitamins?”
“What do you think of this diet?”
“Is yogurt good for me or not?”
Each and every time someone posed such a query, I became immediately cognizant of one thing: the big blank space in my brain. After all, even with medical school acceptance in hand, I was no more a doctor than …

Los Angeles Times, Karen Kaplan, September 2, 2010
For many students, “back to school” means back to a vending machine diet. As you might guess, this isn’t necessarily a good thing for student health.
Vending machines are found in 16% of U.S. elementary schools, 52% of middle schools and 88% of high schools. About 22% of students in grades 1 through 12 buy food in vending machines each day – and those purchases added an average of 253 calories to their diets, according to a new study in the September issue of …

CDC, September 10, 2010
According to the latest CDC report, 88 million non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke.

Vital Signs: Nonsmokers’ Exposure to Secondhand Smoke — United States, 1999–2008

Background: Secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, exacerbated asthma, respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung function in children.
Methods: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1999–2008 were analyzed to determine the proportion of the nonsmoking population with serum cotinine (the primary nicotine metabolite) levels ≥0.05 …

The Harvard Crimson, Helen Yang, September 13, 2010
A low-carbohydrate diet with protein and fats primarily from meats may increase susceptibility to heart disease or cancer more so than a high-carbohydrate diet, according to a study published last week by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“The bottom line is that not all low-carbohydrate diets are created equal,” said Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition at the School of Public Health and the study’s principal investigator. “The original Atkins diet, which was loaded with animal fats, is certainly not …

We’ve all heard the expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And for years, we’ve known that at least in spirit, it’s  somewhat true. Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and nutritionists say they contain ingredients that can fight off certain illnesses.
Now a new study, published this week in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, finds that eating a diverse diet of veggies and fruit can decrease your risk of developing lung cancer, especially if you are a smoker.
Scientists …

Washington Post, Jane Black,  August 20, 2010
Public health advocates have long yearned to link food assistance to good nutrition. But the question was how? Telling people what to eat is a political no-no – and it’s impractical to boot: How could the government rate which of the 50,000-plus products in a grocery store are healthy? Would Diet Coke pass the test? How about juice drink Sunny Delight?
This week, the USDA took a first crucial step toward finding the answer when it announced details of a $20 million pilot program that …

The New York Times, Andrew Martin, August 24, 2010
Federal investigators have descended on Iowa to try to figure out the cause of a salmonella outbreak that may have sickened thousands of people and led to the recall of a half billion eggs.

Because most of the tainted eggs have either been used or removed from store shelves, consumers at this point appear to have little to fear from eating eggs as long as they are cooked properly. And new safety rules for egg production, which came too late to prevent this …

CSPI, august 17, 2010
The Center for Science in the Public Interest will not appeal a federal appeals court decision blocking a New Jersey woman’s lawsuit over false weight-loss claims made by Coca-Cola for Enviga. Enviga is a line of artificially sweetened green tea-based soft drinks whose labeling and advertising claims that the drink “burns calories.” Launched with considerable fanfare in 2006, Enviga has since faded into obscurity.
Under a February 2009 settlement agreement reached with 27 states and the District of Columbia, Coca-Cola agreed to pay $650,000 and to stop making …

BBC News, Emma Wilkinson, August 13, 2010
Overweight people are more likely to make frequent trips to their GP than smokers or those who are generally unfit, say Dutch researchers.
The findings cannot be explained by overweight people having a higher risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the analysis showed.
Rising rates of obesity means nurses may have to take some of the pressure off doctors, they said.
The research is published in Family Practice.
The team from Maastricht University looked at GP data from almost 4,500 adults.
Participants also filled in a questionnaire designed …

Health.com, Amanda Gardner, August 16, 2010
Eating too much red meat has long been a no-no for people with high cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease. But it hasn’t always been clear how much is too much.
Now, a new study suggests that you don’t have to cut out red meat altogether to improve your heart health. If you eat red meat more than once a day, cutting back to one serving every other day can substantially reduce your risk of having a heart attack or dying from heart disease, …