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TweetUSNews, Hanna Dubansky, November 24, 2010
The thrust and details of the 2010 guidelines won’t be known until they are released, a change from before, when the government simply adopted the recommendations of an advisory panel. This time DOA and HHS are hammering out the final version behind the curtains, with a 13-member advisory panel providing input rather than dictating the content. But the report and recommendations released by the panel in June are bound to carry heavy weight. If the panel’s input foreshadows the shape and scope of the guidelines …

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Food and Health News, November 22, 2010
Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day is one of the means that experts most frequently recommend for preventing cancer. Now, the European EPIC study carried out by researchers from 10 countries has shown that, in the case of lung cancer, the important thing is not just the quantity but also the variety of fruit consumed, which can reduce the risk by up to 23%.
“This research looks more deeply into the relationship between diet and lung cancer”, María José Sánchez Pérez, …

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Fooducate, November 18, 2010
Yesterday we participated in a conference call hosted by Produce for Better Health Foundation, discussing how America has progressed in produce consumption over the past decade. A distinguished panel presented quite a grim picture:

America’s  fruit and vegetable consumption remains far below recommended levels
Only 8% of us reach our fruit goals.
Only 6% reach the veggie goals.
While we eat a third of our food away from home, those meals account for only 11% of fruit & veggie consumption.
Eight of the states with the lowest fruit and vegetable consumption are …

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TweetSan Francisco Chronicle, Erin Allday, November 18, 2010
A nationwide campaign to persuade Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables has so far proved ineffective, with some groups of people eating less produce now than they did when the campaign began, according to a report released Wednesday.
The National Action Plan to increase produce consumption would probably merit only a D-minus grade five years into the campaign, said officials with the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, the coalition of public and private health advocacy groups that designed the plan.
The alliance released a …

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TweetThe New York Times, Michael Barbaro and Anemona Hartocollis, November 16, 2010
By her own account, Cathleen P. Black, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s choice to be the next New York City schools chancellor, has had almost no experience with the public education system.
But for nearly 20 years, she played an influential role in a company that did: Coca-Cola.
As America awoke to a national obesity epidemic and schools tried to rid their hallways of sugary drinks, Coca-Cola emerged as the biggest and most aggressive opponent of the scientists, lawmakers and educators who …

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TweetLos Angeles Times, November 17, 2010
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet and a healthy life — so say nutrition experts who have pounded that message into Americans for many years now. However, their advice is falling on deaf ears. A report card released Wednesday shows that efforts to improve intake of fruits and vegetables are failing in many arenas.
For example, over the last five years, fruit intake for adults has risen only slightly while the percentage of adults who eat the recommended servings per day of …

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TweetThe New York Times, Rob Walker, November 12, 2010
Among students of the contemporary metropolis, “food deserts” have become a widely known problem. The term is generally used to describe urban neighborhoods where there are few grocers selling fresh produce, but a cornucopia of fast-food places and convenience stores selling salty snacks (though, strictly speaking, the term can be applied to rural or suburban areas, too). Often the problem afflicts low-income areas abandoned or shunned by food businesses that focus on better-off consumers; the residents of food deserts, apparently, are not …

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TweetUSA Today, November 10, 2010
Obesity is proving to be a heavy burden for the nation’s kids and teens.
Experts have known for years that hauling around extra pounds takes a huge toll on children’s health. It puts them at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and other health problems.
A study in 2005 found that children today may lead shorter lives by two to five years than their parents because of obesity.
About a third of children and adolescents in the United States weigh too much. With so many …

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Food and Health News, November 13, 2010
In the second paper in The Lancet Series on Chronic Disease and Development, experts show that in the UK everyone eating a healthy diet would deliver big health effects with minimal knock-on effects to domestic agriculture and trade. But in a middle-income country like Brazil, it’s a different story. There, healthier eating (both in Brazil or the UK) could have a major impact on agriculture, trade, and, by definition, jobs. The second paper is by Professor Richard Smith, London School of Hygiene and Tropical …

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TweetThe Philadelphia Inquirer, Alfred Lubrano, October 31, 2010
Mold grows thick and black on the walls of Celeata Bailey’s Norris Square bedroom.
Because most of the ceiling is missing, Bailey, 21, gets soaked in bed when it rains.
Her family puts up duct tape to keep the bathroom wall from collapsing. Raw sewage burbles in the basement, and the family stores surgical masks in the kitchen for anyone who has to descend into its putrid depths.
Bailey’s poverty is evident throughout the house, which sits in the First Congressional District, the second-hungriest in America, …