“Nutrition” on The Daily Caller

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)

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)

After staunchly defending the safety of artificial food colorings, the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether foods like Jell-O, Lucky Charms cereal and Minute Maid Lemonade should carry warnings that the bright artificial colorings in them worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children. (more)

Have you ever noticed that people on diets are really crabby? While many might blame low blood sugar or a general lack of pleasure (rice cakes, cabbage soup — ugh!), recent psychological research suggests that it’s actually the exercise of self-control that leads people to become irritable and aggressive at inappropriate times. (more)

The wackiest video of the past two weeks wasn’t one of Charlie Sheen’s maniacal rants. No, the prize goes to the undercover exposé showing senior NPR Officials Gone Wild, a story that broke here at The Daily Caller. (more)

Michelle Obama isn’t the only one waging a war on obesity. Unbeknownst to them, taxpayers are too. (more)

At the London restaurant Archipelago, diners can order the $11 Baby Bee Brulee: a creamy custard topped with a crunchy little bee. In New York, the Mexican restaurant Toloache offers $11 chapulines tacos: two tacos stuffed with Oaxacan-style dried grasshoppers. (more)

It’s a choice none of us would like to make. But 51 per cent of women have admitted they would sacrifice a year of sex if it meant they could be skinny. (more)

First lady Michelle Obama will be speaking out to remove barriers to breastfeeding, Politics Daily has learned, throwing the spotlight on nursing as a way to reduce childhood obesity. (more)

Forget fruit juice – chocolate could be an even better way to boost your health, new research shows. (more)

Freedom-loving Americans may cringe at the idea of allowing the president’s unelected wife to tell them what they can and cannot eat, but the National Restaurant Association (NRA) says first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative is one that they are embracing. (more)

Last week the federal government released its official 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the last step in a process that’s repeated every five years. (more)

WASHINGTON — After wrapping her arms around the retail giant Wal-Mart and trying to cajole food makers into producing nutrition labels that are easier to understand, Michelle Obama, the first lady and a healthy-eating advocate, has her sights set on a new target: the nation’s restaurants. (more)

A new study finds a possible link between working mothers and childhood obesity, Time magazine reported Friday. (more)

As the nation’s obesity crisis continues unabated, federal regulators on Monday issued their bluntest nutrition advice to date: drink water instead of sugary drinks like soda, fill your plate with fruits and vegetables and cut down on processed foods filled with sodium, fat or sugar. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest grocer, says it will reformulate thousands of products to make them healthier and push its suppliers to do the same, joining first lady Michelle Obama’s effort to combat childhood obesity. (more)

The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates. (more)

Put the cauliflower down. I know it’s on your list of New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier, but you don’t know anything about that vegetable on your plate. Have you checked its papers? Is it organic? Local? Sustainable? Will eating it increase your carbon footprint? How many hummingbirds were harmed in its cultivation? (more)

1.) Remember: You’re a liar and/or an idiot if you call it ‘a government takeover of health care’ — Tomorrow, a group of bureaucrats will meet to determine which treatments private insurance companies will be mandated to cover, and for how long. “The Obama administration faces a tough balancing act,” writes Kaiser Health News. “The benefits package must be broad enough to be comprehensive but not too broad as to be unaffordable. Patient advocates and industry lobbyists already are drawing up wish lists for items they want covered – including autism therapy, obesity treatments, infertility treatments and unlimited chemotherapy visits.” AEI’s Joe Antos told KHN, “This is an invitation for all kinds of lobbying from every conceivable disease group and provider group in the country.” For instance: Joe Nadglowski, CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, thinks insurers should be required to cover bariatric surgery. “Adding a wider range of treatments would raise premium costs, Nadglowski acknowledges, but could save money over time if people sought both prevention and treatment for obesity.” That’s a lot of ifs. (more)

On Tuesday, President Obama signed one of the most expansive food regulation bills in living memory, giving the Food and Drug Administration sweeping regulation powers over food production and distribution. (more)