Section » Health
What does asthma have to do with farm animals — or food?
When government officials hear the words "backyard livestock," they tend to worry about disease outbreaks and sanitation crises. And for good reason, as improperly managed animals — including dogs and cats — can be the source of all sorts of public health problems.
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Report scrutinizes ties between Big Food, health organizations
Ignore the man behind the curtain: Reporters Rick Montgomery and Alan Bavley examine the “marriages of convenience” between unhealthy food producers and organizations aimed at promoting health, such as the newly announced alliance between Coca Cola and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Flat world, fat world: Report from the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Symposium, part 1
By Nicole de Beaufort On September 21, 2009 in Minneapolis, a crowd of 300 people representing more than 30 disciplines gathered for a symposium hosted by the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute
Stanford Hospital gets Farm Fresh
Recipe for wellness: Stanford Hospital and Clinics' new Farm Fresh project, launched in a pilot phase last month, brings organic, locally grown and sustainable food to any patient whose doctor approves it and doesn't cost a cent more than traditional fare. Other Northern California hospitals such as
Time to ban practice of feeding poultry “litter” (eg poop & other waste) to cows
File in the bulging folder of Really Bad Ideas: It's estimated that as much as 2 billion pounds of poultry litter (comprising chicken manure aka poop, feathers, spilled feed, bedding material, dead rodents, etc.) are fed to cattle every year. That's more than just gross — it courts mad cow disease,
NYT mag on obesity: Don’t punish, politicize
Who paves the road for the responsibility bandwagon?: Were it up to him, Cleveland Clinic heart surgeon Delos Cosgrove would amend the clinic's wellness policy--which already bans the hiring of smokers--to include a ban on the hiring of obese people. His is a hard-line approach linking obesity to personal
Do I dare to eat a peach? Not a conventional one, says Tribune study
Another day, another facet to the debate over whether organic produce is worth the extra moolah. Unless you've been living on a remote mountaintop with no wireless, you've probably witnessed the recent frenzy over a UK
Obesity rates rising, health care system buckling
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of fattiness: Tom Laskawy has a brutally pointed post about a new state-level study of obesity rates, which found that obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere. What's particularly worrying is that in every state, the "rate
Modern therapy for the LOHAS set
Will Peak Soil counseling be next? Clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon has branched out from the usual counseling topics to writing an advice column called Peak Oil Blues about the coming oil shortages. People write in with their worries, brag about how prepared
Meaty diet found to be heavier in flame retardant PBDEs
Free to be me and PBDE: Humans and many animals have become cocktails of chemicals, with a lifetime's "body burden" acquired from skin contact, breathing, drinking, and eating industrial materials. A newly released paper by researchers at Boston University investigates the role of diet in the body burden
The price of cheap meat: Antibiotic resistance
The good, the bad, and the buggy: A useful primer on antibiotic resistance, with two pages of illustrations, explains how bacteria develop resistance and pays special attention to the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from hospitals into the community, development of resistance
When “no antibiotics” claims may be misleading
This really bugs us: Conventional meat producers routinely feed their animals a steady diet of antibiotics to prevent illness and help them grow fatter faster. But in response to the growing numbers of consumers who hunger for meat and chicken raised naturally, without drugs, more are promoting their
Health insurance woes strangling rural America
FarmedicAid?: Excellent piece about how access to affordable health insurance is a major barrier for small business owners and farmers in rural America. One-third of farmers and ranchers depend on individual insurance — four times the rate for everyone else — and in many cases those premiums come
Watch the U.S. get fatter on CDC’s animated map!
Amber waves of gain: The Centers for Disease Control has mapped the dramatic increase in obesity state by state on a U.S. map covering 1985 to 2007. Who's the skinniest of them all? Nope, not California (we blame Fresno): Colorado. In 2007, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than
Koreans crack open a cool, frosty dose of fiber
As an observer of the American food scene, I see many instances of oddly supplemented foods and drinks, where everyday foods are dosed with antioxidants or vitamins or another supposedly healthful supplement to give its buyer a sense of healthy satisfaction. But there is always another surprise lurking
