Category: Issue 509
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Study Allegedly Identifies Immunological Connection Between Obesity and Asthma
A recent animal study has allegedly identified a new immunological connection between obesity and asthma involving “inflammasome activation and production of cytokine interleukin-17 by innate lymphoid cells in the lung,” according to a concurrent editorial published in Nature Medicine. Hye Young Kim, et al., “Interleukin-17-producing innate lymphoid cells and the NLRP3 inflammasome facilitate obesity-associated airway…
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Systematic Review Summarizes Neuropsychological Model for Obesity
A recent systematic review of the current scientific literature “assigning obesity to the spectrum of neuropsychological diseases” has proposed “an integrative model” for understanding obesity not simply as a “deliberately flawed food intake behavior with the consequence of dysbalanced energetic uptake and expenditure,” but as a complex condition “linked to neurobio- logical and psychological aspects…
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Researchers Review Studies Assessing SSBs and Weight Gain for Conflicts of Interest
After analyzing reporting biases for 17 systematic reviews (SRs) assessing the association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and weight gain, EU researchers have allegedly concluded that financial conflicts of interest may influence the outcomes of such studies. Maira Bes-Rastrollo, et al., “Financial Conflicts of Interest and Reporting Bias Regarding the Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight…
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Researchers Explore Food Addiction in Light of DSM-5 Criteria
York University researchers have published a qualitative study examining “how obese women with and without binge eating disorder (BED) experience overeating in relation to the DSM-5 [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual] symptoms of addiction.” Claire Curtis & Caroline Davis, “A Qualitative Study of Binge Eating and Obesity From an Addiction Perspective,” Eating Disorders, January 2014. According…
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Consumer Groups Harness Power of Social Media to Influence Food Industry
A recent New York Times article highlights how groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest as well as individual consumers have harnessed the power of social media to bring their concerns directly to food companies. Titled “Social Media as a Megaphone to Pressure the Food Industry,” the article describes several instances…
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Hundreds Affected by Pesticide-Contaminated Frozen Foods in Japan
As many as 1,700 people in Japan have reportedly become ill after eating frozen food allegedly contaminated with the pesticide malathion, a chemical used to kill aphids in corn and rice fields. The food, which included frozen pizza and chicken nuggets and apparently contained 2.6 million times the permitted level of the pesticide, has been…
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New UK Campaign Asserts That “Sugar Is the New Tobacco”
A group of international health experts has launched a new campaign intended to reduce the amount of sugar in processed foods and beverages sold in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Modeled after the Consensus Action on Salt and Health and chaired by Queen Mary University of London Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine Graham MacGregor, Action on Sugar…
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Oregon AG Sues 5-Hour ENERGY® Makers Seeking Information
Oregon Attorney General (AG) Ellen Rosenblum has reportedly filed an action in state court against the companies that make and promote 5-hour ENERGY®, a drink purportedly linked to adverse incidents including fatalities, seeking to enforce her demand for information about the product. The lawsuit against Innovation Ventures, Living Essentials and Microdose Sales, filed in Multnomah…