Category: Scientific/Technical Items
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Children’s TV Allegedly Promotes Unhealthy Diet
A recent study asserts that even when children’s TV programs are free of product advertisements, they still include positive cues for unhealthy food and beverages. Paul Scully, et al., “Food and beverage cues in UK and Irish children-television programming,” Archives of Disease in Childhood, July 2014. Researchers with the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical…
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Study Targets Purported Dangers of Yogurt Mold
Duke University researchers have reportedly identified a “highly pathogenic mold” in recalled yogurt samples, raising questions about the human health implications of fungal pathogens such as Mucor circinelloides. Soo Chan Lee, et al., “Analysis of a foodborne fungal pathogen outbreak: virulence and genome of a Mucor circinelloides isolate from yogurt,” mBio, July 2014. After isolating…
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Food Logo Familiarity Linked to Childhood Obesity?
A new study has reportedly concluded that “the more a child is familiar with logos and other images from fast-food restaurants, sodas and not-so-healthy snack food brands, the more likely a child is to be overweight or obese.” T. Bettina Cornwell, “Children’s knowledge of packaged and fast food brands and their BMI: Why the relationship…
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Study Identifies 175 “Chemicals of Concern” in Food Contact Materials
A study published this week by researchers associated with the Zurich, Switzerland-based Food Packaging Forum has sounded the alarm about the number of allegedly hazardous substances contained in food packaging or those that may contaminate food during production, processing, storage and transportation. Birgit Geueke, et al., “Food contact substances and chemicals of concern: a comparison…
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Salad Arranged to Evoke Kandinsky Painting Tastes Better, Study Finds
A University of Oxford study has apparently found that a salad with its ingredients arranged to resemble Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract Painting Number 201 tasted better to subjects than salads with the ingredients tossed together in the middle of or laid out neatly on their plates. Charles Michel et al., “A taste of Kandinsky: assessing the influence…
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JAMA Viewpoint Discusses Alternative Theory of Obesity
A recent viewpoint article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) discusses an alternative theory of chronic overeating as “a manifestation rather than the primary cause of obesity.” David Ludwig and Mark Friedman, “Increasing Adiposity: Consequence or Cause of Overeating?,” JAMA, June 2014. Authored by New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston…
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Red Meat Intake in Early Adulthood Allegedly Linked to Breast Cancer Risk
A recent study has allegedly linked higher red meat intake in early adulthood to an increased breast cancer risk, raising questions about how dietary habits adopted before midlife can affect health outcomes. Maryam Farvid, et al., “Dietary protein sources in early adulthood and breast cancer incidence: prospective cohort study,” BMJ, June 2014. In addition to…
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RAND Study Examines Economic Measures to Curb Obesity
A recent review of literature on the impact of the economic environment on obesity has purportedly concluded that “effective economic measures policies to curb obesity remain elusive.” Roland Sturm and Ruopeng An, “Obesity and Economic Environments,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, May 2014. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and RAND Corp., the…