(via The Significance of Stunting – State of the Planet)
Jessica Fanzo and Sarah Curran explain why stunting is important as an indicator of deeper problems.
What’s Bleach Doing in My Fruit?
Last month, I came across a blog post at Prevention magazine titled “What’s Anti-Freeze Doing in Fast Food?”, based on a blog post titled “6 Cosmetic Chemicals in Fast Food.” The intent is to frighten people away from fast food by pointing out some scary sounding chemicals used in food production and preservation, like propylene glycol and sodium stearoyl lactylate that happen to be used in cosmetic products as well.
You are what you eat: junk food edition
Did you read that article in last weekend’s New York Times Sunday Review, Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food by one Jo Robinson? OK, so it was an “opinion” piece, but does that have to mean truth flies out the window?
Award Winners
The research award winners were selected from a pool of 66 high-quality proposals by eight expert reviewers. The winners are:
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, The Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, for his proposal on Comparative effectiveness of population strategies to improve diet.
Dr. Jeannette M. Beasley, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, for her proposal Effects of intake of sugar on the development and prevention of major non-communicable diseases.
Dr. Kristina H. Lewis, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Atlanta, Georgia, for her proposal The KP personal shopper: A pilot to strengthen the impact of dietary advice.
Competitive prizes for research big and getting bigger. It’ll be interesting to see how these three work out, especially No. 1. and to see how the Sackler Awards work out too.
Body mass index around the world, visualized. Pair with What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.
The study team concluded that the only way to achieve the United Nation’s goal of halving the mortality rate for diseases caused by tobacco, alcohol and poor diet is through greater regulation. The authors conclude that public regulation and market intervention are the only evidence-based mechanisms to prevent harm caused by the unhealthy commodity industries. Many techniques used by industry to avoid or overcome unwanted industry regulation are cited throughout the article, with a key example being marketing which included a barrage of TV advertisements, billboards and well-known celebrities encouraging the public to eat unhealthy foods. Prominent organisations like the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organisation have warned that food and beverage advertising contributes to childhood obesity.
The 2011 UN high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) called for multisectoral action including with the private sector and industry. However, through the sale and promotion of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink (unhealthy commodities), transnational corporations are major drivers of global epidemics of NCDs. What role then should these industries have in NCD prevention and control? We emphasise the rise in sales of these unhealthy commodities in low-income and middle-income countries, and consider the common strategies that the transnational corporations use to undermine NCD prevention and control. We assess the effectiveness of self-regulation, public—private partnerships, and public regulation models of interaction with these industries and conclude that unhealthy commodity industries should have no role in the formation of national or international NCD policy. Despite the common reliance on industry self-regulation and public—private partnerships, there is no evidence of their effectiveness or safety. Public regulation and market intervention are the only evidence-based mechanisms to prevent harm caused by the unhealthy commodity industries.
Dietary advice about fats and the risk of heart disease is called into question on bmj.com today as a clinical trial shows that replacing saturated animal fats with omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable fats is linked to an increased risk of death among patients with heart disease. The researchers say their findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary recommendations.
Study raises questions about dietary fats and heart disease guidance | BMJ
Uh-oh. But it is only one study.
Puhala Tree Seed-Pod
Holy wow.
But that’s just one kind: here’s some pandanus diversity.
