If the thought of having your food created and modified by the world’s largest pesticide manufacturer creeps you out, you’re not alone. The report from a recent analysis performed by the National Academy of Sciences – a private nonprofit that provides advice from experts – isn’t likely to make you feel much better. Par for […]
Nutrition & Diet
Rainbow of Risks: Artificial Food Dyes
The whole purpose of artificial food coloring is to snag our sense of sight, capture our attention, and lure us in. Maybe it’s a latent survival mechanism – nutritious fruit and veg is brightly colored, too – but technicolor foods appeal to us. And though most of us don’t think so, food dyes are probably […]
Real Food Doesn’t Need Labels (and You Need Real Food)
Every so often, you hear a lot of hopeful chatter about a new kind of nutrition label – something to make it quick and easy for consumers to grasp how healthful or horrible a product may be. The latest version getting a whole lot of PR? Something called NuVal, which gives a single numerical rating […]
Enjoy Your Holiday Desserts with Your Dentist’s Blessing
Candy canes. Cookies. Fruitcake. Fudge. Mulled cider or wine. Egg nog. All of the most conspicuous traditional holiday treats seem to be sugar bombs. Yet who can imagine the holiday season without them? It just wouldn’t feel like Christmas – or any of the other winter holidays and observations – without the traditional foods we […]
It’s Beyond Time to Address the Root Cause of Tooth Decay
At their recent meeting, the ADA made a big to-do over the 70th anniversary of fluoridation. “This is the most effective weapon in dentistry, I believe, to prevent not only tooth decay but mouth disease in general and overall health,” stated Raymond Gist, DDS, past ADA president, in a press release. Quite a claim about […]
Healthful Eating: 3 Things to Stop Obsessing About – & 1 to Focus on a Whole Lot More
What were we saying not so long ago about government health advice? Now there’s this in the British Medical Journal: The expert report underpinning the next set of US Dietary Guidelines for Americans fails to reflect much relevant scientific literature in its reviews of crucial topics and therefore risks giving a misleading picture, an investigation […]
Notes on the Changing Food Landscape
It was big news last year when General Mills announced that Cheerios would become GMO-free – even though it was a clearly a go at low-hanging fruit: the cereal hardly contained any GMO ingredients to begin with. But it was also a sign that consumer demand was having an impact. Since then, we’ve seen other […]
Fat & Malnourished: The Sorry State of the American Diet – and Glimmers of Positive Change
Imagine two tomato plants. One is in nutrient-rich soil, gets plenty of bright, direct sunlight and is given all the water it needs. The other is in depleted soil, gets mainly filtered sunlight and is given just half the water given to the other. Both plants may live, but only the first one may truly […]