Section » Health
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 20%. Thirty states had a prevalence equal to or
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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
Wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Smithfield for H1N1
Tom Philpott might want to call a lawyer: The husband of pregnant Judy Trunnell, the first U.S. resident to die from the H1N1 flu outbreak, has filed a lawsuit against Smithfield Foods, the U.S. owner of a Mexican pig farm in La Gloria where "news reports traced the first cases." Steven Trunnell has
If there’s ever a serious pandemic, we’re in deep shit
Stay home and call your doctor?: Billions of dollars spent on Homeland Security and biodefense in the U.S., and one very sick WSJ reporter can't get tested for swine flu, even once admitted to the hospital and placed in isolation. (Wall
CDC briefing: Novel H1N1 virus not raging out of control yet
The Centers for Disease Control held a press briefing this morning at 1 p.m. EST about the "novel H1N1" virus. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for the Science and Public Health Program, and influenza expert Nancy Cox gave updated statistics: there are 226 confirmed
Aporkalypse Now revisited: What’s new in swine flu
Thanks, people: Canadian health officials have found the new H1N1 flu virus in a swine herd in Alberta. They apparently caught it from a human who recently traveled to Mexico. (Reuters)
Health care for farmers
Non-GMO, pro-HMO: Do you know who grows your food? asks Ethicurean contributor Steph Larsen, moonlighting over at Change.org's Sustainable Food blog. Duh, you read the Ethicurean, of course you do. Then, she continues, ask him or her what
Swine flu and Mexican CAFO connection
Hogs, bogs, and floggings: Tom Philpott takes a careful, comprehensive look at the possibility the swine-flu outbreak originated from the area around Granjas Carroll’s hog confinements (Smithfield has a stake in them), whether transmitted by workers, flies, or asymptomatic pigs. And if it didn't,
Digest – News: Smithfield’s flu, organic for the masses, Vilsack reserves judgment
They're not confining everything, apparently: MSM's all over the swine flu (SJ Merc) and U.S. hog prices are tanking (Reuters), but few are talking
Digest – Blogs, features and snacks: Pesticide perversions, subsidy love, the anti-Pollan
Small-town physician sees effects of Big Ag: an Indiana neonatologist finds that birth defects, including spina bifida, cleft pallet and lip, down syndrome, urogenital abnormalities, and club foot (among others) are more likely to occur in pregnancies that begin between April and July — the time period
‘Killer’ movie tells who to charge for the large
"Killer at Large," a new documentary DVD, is a veritable banquet of obesity information, serving up copious facts and personal tales about the American obesity epidemic that threatens to shorten the life span of the current generation of young people. Alas,
Digest – News: Plastics make kids fat, North Star stars in food safety, peanut payout
Chemical reaction: A long term study by Mount Sinai Medical Center on children in East Harlem links exposure to a class of chemicals called phthalates — found in products that list "fragrance" as an ingredient, and in soft plastics — with childhood obesity. The study found that the heaviest children
Straight to the superbug supersource: Q&A with Maryn McKenna about MRSA in people — and pigs
Everyone's up in arms about historian James McWilliams' New York Times op-ed last week, misleadingly headlined "Free-Range Trichinosis," about how a study found more pathogens in pastured pigs than factory ones. Many bloggers have
Review: Real Food For Healthy Kids cookbook
I talk a lot of smack about sustainable food. About the unexpected pleasures of farmer’s markets, about voting with one’s fork, about "local economies" this and "food miles" that. But here’s my dirty little secret: it wasn’t that long ago that I fed my daughter a steady diet of chicken nuggets,
