Intent on making America’s eating habits as bland as a glass of warm milk on a hot day, nanny staters, including the liberal Institute for Medicine, are lobbying for “front-of-package” labels that graphically warn prospective consumers that the goodies they want to enjoy may make them fat. (more)
Forget that size 2, ignore the First Lady’s calorie-counting dictates, and say “no thanks” to diet drinks! (more)
Be an atheist or agnostic at your own peril. (more)
In 2009, we heard the wonderful news that scientists at Holland’s Eindhoven University of Technology had successfully grown pork in a petri dish: a giant step toward the dream of eating a pork chop without slaughtering a pig for it. Unfortunately, the lab-grown meat was floppy, “soggy,” and structureless, not at all what you’d like to toss on your grill and tuck into. (more)
The CIA’s use of a fake vaccination program to help find Osama bin Laden is a stain on an otherwise remarkable operation. (more)
Yesterday the USDA and First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the government’s new nutritional chart, which you can check out at the suggestively nannyish URLs MyPlate.gov or ChooseMyPlate.gov (“Please, guv, could you choose my plate? You know best.”) It’s a sort of segmented cafeteria dish with unequal compartments, slightly larger for “vegetables” and “grains,” slightly smaller for “fruits” and “protein,” along with a “dairy” circle on the side. A few thoughts: (more)
His floppy shoes, painted-on smile and flaming-red hair may be a harder sell to today’s kids who are trading in their dolls and trucks for manicures and mobile game apps at ever younger ages. He also seems out of step with McDonald’s Corp.’s new efforts to appeal to adults. The 48-year-old spokesclown has fallen flat in new ads this year, according to Ace Metrix, a group that tracks TV advertising. (more)
Giving acetaminophen to young children is not as straightforward as parents might think, or hope. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, federal officials will weigh whether to add new dosing information to Tylenol and other over-the-counter acetaminophen medications. (more)
As concern grows about child obesity, more people are asking why sugary flavored milk remains a staple of school lunches across the country. (more)
Botox may smooth your wrinkles, but it can dull your ability to understand the emotions of others, a new study suggests. (more)
On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology. (more)
A new survey in the Archives of Internal Medicine has found some potentially disturbing results. When faced with certain hypothetical treatment scenarios, doctors were more likely to recommend treatments with higher risk of death, but less severe side-affects, when told to imagine themselves as the patient. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — D.C. leaders including the mayor took to the streets to protest congressional control of the nation’s capital, blocking traffic and getting arrested over a federal budget deal expected to impose renewed restrictions on the city. (more)
Faced with rising costs and residents still without health insurance, Vermont lawmakers are poised to pass a single-payer healthcare plan, which would reshape how the state’s doctors are paid and become the first of its type in the US. (more)
A growing body of research shows that juggling many tasks, as so many people do in this technological era, can divide attention and hurt learning and performance. Does it also hinder short-term memory? (more)
Every high school classroom holds a few slack-jawed students. One British teen, however, unintentionally took the term to a new level. (more)
The partially paralyzed young man who became the first person to test a therapy made from human embyonic stem cells is in good spirits and hopeful about recovering, family and friends said. (more)
Attention coffee lovers: don’t worry, your need for caffeine isn’t your fault. A team of esteemed biological scientists recently published a study in PLoS Genetics that links caffeine addiction to one’s genetic makeup. The study found that people who carry a specific version of two genes involved with the breakdown of chemicals in the liver, (CYP1A2 and AHR,) will crave and consume more caffeine than those who do not posses the genes. (more)
WHITE CITY, Ore. (AP) — Cynthia Willis calls up and down the firing range to be sure everyone knows she is shooting, squares up in a two-handed stance with her Walther P-22 automatic pistol and fires off a clip in rapid succession. (more)
For a brief time earlier this month, the National Cancer Institute, a branch of the federal government’s National Institutes of Health, had posted a webpage touting the possible benefits of marijuana in fighting cancer tumors. But less than two weeks after it went up, the webpage was altered and the approving words stricken. (more)
