November 4, 2023 — It only took half a century. Back in 1970, the FDA decided that brominated vegetable oil could no longer have GRAS – generally recognized as safe – status. This week the agency announced it plans to ban this additive to many citrus flavored drinks. The long goodbye to brominated vegetable oil (BVO) will not be […]
July 31, 2023 — The subject of sweeteners stirs emotions almost constantly. The World Health organization has been on a tear lately, suggesting the the sweetener aspartame might be carcinogenic and that non-sugar sweeteners have “deadly long-term consequences.” Some experts will even suggest non-nutritive sweeteners can cause weight gain. So we welcome the appearance of a more balanced view, […]
June 10, 2022 — The theme is a meme. Food is medicine. Exercise is medicine. Now yet again, a big study tells us that people who drink coffee live longer. So should we be on the lookout for a coffee is medicine campaign, funded by big java? Gosh, we hope not. Another Large Observational Study Stirring this subject up […]
February 18, 2022 — Alcohol can have some seriously bad effects on health and life. So a century ago, zealous advocates worked to ban alcoholic beverages altogether and they briefly succeeded in a number of countries, including the U.S. But the impulses for prohibition faded away because of popular resistance and unintended consequences. Today, the harm that stems from […]
August 22, 2020 — An interesting new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association isn’t really getting the attention it deserves. It asks simple questions. What’s the effect of cutting sugar-sweetened drinks? First, does it reduce risk factors for heart disease? Second, does it bring weight loss? Finally, does it lead people to prefer less sweetness? The […]
December 1, 2019 — It seems like a simple proposition. Stop drinking your calories. Drink water or other non-caloric beverages instead. In the calories-in-calories-out way of thinking, weight loss will be automatic. Drink only water and you’ll be drinking for weight loss. The CHOICE Study This study actually tested the drinking for weight loss proposition. It was a rigorous […]
September 20, 2019 — It’s official. Juice is out – at least for kids under five. According to just about every relevant professional organization, kids don’t need anything but milk and water to drink. And for that matter, they should be skipping the chocolate milk and other sweetened milks. Juice and sweet drinks will rot their teeth and just […]
September 9, 2019 — Reducing the intake of sugary drinks is presently quite important to many public health advocates. Taxes on sweet drinks are one effective way to do this. And advocates are convinced that the result will be better health – less obesity and less diabetes. But it’s worth asking: what will take the place of those sugary […]
September 5, 2019 — Every day we get practical lessons in the power of familiarity bias. Repeat something often enough and people believe it. This week, JAMA Internal Medicine is feeding the soft drink panic machine. “New study links all soda to an early death,” says the Washington Post. CNN gets right down to it: “Want to live longer? […]
April 1, 2019 — A broad coalition of health, nutrition, environmental, and animal rights activists are creating quite a stir today with an ambitious new policy proposal. The Lean New Deal aims to stop the obesity syndemic in its tracks. At the same time, it will erase the problem of climate change if fully implemented. This is the product […]
