Food Politics

MAY 3, 2024

Here’s something I haven’t yet written about but I’m seeing so much on the topic that it’s due. Microplastics are small (5 millimeters and much, much smaller) particles that come off of plastic containers, wrappings, and waste. They are now everywhere and in everything, including oceans, water supplies, food, animals, and us. Not nearly enough is known about their effects, but early signs are not reassuring.

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Food Politics

MAY 2, 2024

As I’ve said before , USDA is at long last taking a first step toward declaring Salmonella an adulterant on poultry products. Here’s the headline: USDA Finalizes Policy to Protect Consumers from Salmonella in Raw Breaded Stuffed Chicken Products: an adulterant in raw breaded stuffed chicken products when they exceed a specific threshold (1 colony forming unit (CFU) per gram or higher) for Salmonella.

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Food Politics

MAY 1, 2024

I’m having a had time keeping up with all the things the New York City food policy office is doing to improve the city’s food system, so I asked for, and got, an impressive list. For starters, it has a plan: Food Forward NYC: A 10-Year Policy Plan And its done a 2-Year Progress Report The office published or supports the publishing of other city reports: Food Standards Compliance Report on the nutritional quality of the 219 million meals served City agencies NYC Food by the Numbers summarizing d

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Food Politics

APRIL 30, 2024

Last week, the USDA issued new rules for the nutrient content of school meals and also child care programs. These apply to sugar and sodium (nutrients), whole grains (ingredient or food), and milk (food). The New York Times report on this cut right to the chase The Agriculture Department announced on Wednesday that it had finalized the regulation it had first proposed in February 2023 , having weakened several provisions after feedback from food companies, school nutrition professionals and ov

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Food Politics

APRIL 29, 2024

Last week I posted a debate about the health and environmental consequences of eating snakes , mainly because it never occurred to me that anyone would take it seriously. I thought it was funny. Shows you what I know. Busted. The eating-snakes-is-sustainable position was based on a study that I obviously had not read. But a reader, Michael Tlusty, did.

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Food Politics

APRIL 26, 2024

An investigative report from Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN): “How Nestlé gets children hooked on sugar in lower-income countries.” Nestlé’s leading baby-food brands, promoted in low- and middle-income countries as healthy and key to supporting young children’s development, contain high levels of added sugar. In Switzerland, where Nestlé is headquartered, such products are sold with no added sugar.

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Food Politics

APRIL 25, 2024

I kn0w you wwill want to know about this. Take your pick: PRO Eating snakes offers ‘healthy and sustainable’ protein source: A new study has found that python meat could represent a more sustainable source of protein compared to conventional animal meat…. Read more However, a new study co-authored by Dr Daniel Natusch and Dr Patrick Aust, among others, has suggested that the commercial farming of snakes could help improve agricultural food security and offer a more sustainable alternative to m

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Food Politics

APRIL 24, 2024

Thanks to everyone who flooded my mailbox with this piece from The Guardian: She was fired after not endorsing Splenda-filled salads to people with diabetes. Why? According to a lawsuit {Elizabeth] Hanna recently filed against the ADA, the organization – which endorses recipes and food plans on its websiteand on the websites of “partner” food brands – tried to get her to greenlight recipes that she believedflew in the face of the ADA’s mission.

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Food Politics

APRIL 23, 2024

I received an e-mailed press release from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): NEWS: Sanders and Booker Take on Food and Beverage Industry with New Legislation to Address Childhood Diabetes and Obesity Epidemics. Sen. Sanders, along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Peter Welch (D-VT), have introduced legislation to Take on the greed of the food and beverage industry and address the growing diabetes and obesity epidemics n

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Food Politics

APRIL 22, 2024

I learned about this one from this article: Prune consumption may prevent bone loss for postmenopausal women. Dietary supplementation with prunes can have a broad range of effects on immune, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in postmenopausal women, according to a recent study…. Read more When I see a headline like this, my first question is , as always, who would pay for something like this?

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Food Politics

APRIL 19, 2024

In the Atlantic (to which I subscribe), Eric Schlosser writes: Do We Really Want a Food Cartel? Mergers and acquisitions have created food oligopolies that are inefficient, barely regulated, unfair, and even dangerous. He begins with the Federal Trade Commission’s report on what happened to the US food supply during the COVID-19 pandemic: Feeding America in a Time of Crisis: FTC Staff Report on The United States Grocery Supply Chain and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

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Food Politics

APRIL 18, 2024

The USDA has made some changes to food packages for participants in the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). In a Q and A, the USDA explains the changes and why it made them. What are the WIC food packages? The WIC food packages provide supplemental foods designed to address the specific nutritional needs of income-eligible pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum individuals, infants, and children up to five years of age who are at nutrition

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Food Politics

APRIL 17, 2024

The headline reads: “ Brexit has cost the UK up to £100m in lost salmon sales, according to industry body Scotland Salmon.” Increased red tape and costs triggered by the UK’s departure from the EU in January 2020 has seen exports of Salmon to the trade bloc drop 16% to 44,000 tonnes in 2023. While export values to the EU were only down 3% to £ 356m, this was only because strong global demand had driven up prices.

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Food Politics

APRIL 16, 2024

The keynote address at the Consumer Federation of America’s annual food policy conference was given by the FDA’s new Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, James “Jim” Jones. He talked about his priorities and what he’s hoping the FDA will do. Fine. But in the Q and A, he was pushed repeatedly by Mike Jacobson (former head of CSPI) to say what the FDA would be doing to pressure the food industry to reduce salt in the food supply, something the FDA has promised to do for years with little progress

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Food Politics

APRIL 15, 2024

The study: Mixed nut consumption improves brain insulin sensitivity: a randomized, single-blinded, controlled, crossover trial in older adults with overweight or obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [link] Objective: “This study aimed to investigate longer-term effects of mixed nuts on brain insulin sensitivity in older individuals with overweight/obesity.

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Food Politics

APRIL 12, 2024

Nina Guilbeault. The Good Eater: A Vegan’s Search for the Future of Food. Bloomsbury, 2024. I did a back-cover blurb for this book: The Good Eater is a vegan sociologist’s remarkably open-minded exploration of the historical, ethical, health, environmental, and social justice implications of not eating meat. Guilbeault’s extensive research and interviews get right into the tough questions about this movement, leaving us free to choose for ourselves whether to eat this way.

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Food Politics

APRIL 11, 2024

Fruit juices were not a problem when I was growing up. Ancient history: Juice was so expensive—it was freshly squeezed from several oranges—that we couldn’t afford to drink much of it, Juice glasses were 6 ounces. This was long before cheap concentrated juice appeared in supermarkets, let alone canned and bottled juices and juice drinks. Because juice is squeezed from several fruits, the sugars add up but the fiber disappears.

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Food Politics

APRIL 10, 2024

The headline caught my eye: 5 dead and over 100 hospitalized from recalled Japanese health supplements The supplement is benikoji. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical had been selling benikoji products for years, with a million packages sold over the past three fiscal years, but a problem crept up with the supplements produced in 2023. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical said it produced 18.5 tons of benikoji last year.

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Food Politics

APRIL 9, 2024

I’m trying to make sense of the ongoing spread of bird flu to chickens, dairy cows, and an occasional person. Bird flu, avian influenza , is (obviously) a viral disease in wild birds, but highly pathogenic strains can and do infect chickens, animals, and people. It was considered sporadic and not much of a problem until we started industrial chicken production, crowding tens of thousands of chickens together in on huge barn.

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Food Politics

APRIL 8, 2024

As I pretty much demonstrate every Monday, industry-funded studies almost invariably produce results favoring the sponsor’s interests. But here we have a rare exception to the rule: The study: Effect of cocoa extract supplementation on cognitive function: results from the clinic subcohort of the COSMOS trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,Volume 119, Issue 1, January 2024, Pages 39-48.

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Food Politics

APRIL 5, 2024

I received an emailed announcement from the Meat Institute and FMI—the Food Industry Association of its annual report, The Power of Meat. Here is part of its summary infographic. The press release quotes Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts: When shoppers hear ‘protein,’ they think ‘meat,’ and the Meat Institute is actively working to maintain and grow Americans’ confidence about meat’s role in healthy, balanced diets.

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Food Politics

APRIL 2, 2024

ProPublica has issued a major and highly importantt investigative report: The U.S. Government Defended the Overseas Business Interests of Baby Formula Makers. Kids Paid the Price. The report documents how the U.S. has opposed marketing restrictions on infant formula throughout the world. It refers specifically to what happened in Thailand over attempts to restrict the marketing of toddler formula ( an unneccesary product ).

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Food Politics

APRIL 3, 2024

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a report on Market Factors Relevant to Infant Formula Supply Disruptions 2022. As the report explains: Widespread supply disruptions for infant formula began shortly after Abbott Nutrition voluntarily recalled several powdered infant formulas manufactured at its facility in Sturgis, Michigan in response to reports of bacterial contamination on February 17, 2022.

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Food Politics

APRIL 4, 2024

The USDA has released its latest data on sugar production and the 20-year downward trend continues. The chart is based on data from the USDA Economic Research Service’s (ERS) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System , Availability means total amount produced, less exports, plus imports; it is a proxy for consumption (but undoubtedly higher than actual consumption).

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Food Politics

APRIL 1, 2024

Jim Krieger, of Healthy Food America forwarded this request for research proposals (RFP) from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Senior Director of Human Nutrition Research., On behalf of The Beef Checkoff , the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is conducting a request for proposals (RFP) in Human Nutrition, to further understand beef’s nutritional qualities and define beef’s role in a healthy diet to nourish and optimize health at every life stage including research topics r

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Food Politics

MARCH 28, 2024

I am deluged with emails urging me to say something about the trade dispute between Mexico and the United States over genetically modified (GMO) corn. Let me confess immediately to a particular difficulty understanding international food trade. I find the abbreviations ( NAFTA, USMCA ) and odd terminology ( Sanitary, Phytosanitary ) off-putting and confusing.

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Food Politics

MARCH 27, 2024

At the insistence of Jerry Mande , I watched the meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to learn about the Federal Vision for Advancing Nutrition Science in the United States. This Vision derives from last year’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and its pillar on enhancing nutrition research.

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Food Politics

MARCH 26, 2024

Today I’m participating on a panel discussion on Ozempic at 12:30 EDT. See announcement to the right; register for it here. I watched the Oprah special on the obesity drugs. Its messages: Obesity is a disease, requiring treatment. These drugs offer treatment. The drugs are effective; side effects are minimal. Yes they are expensive and therefore, promote inequality; therefore, the government should pay for them.

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Food Politics

MARCH 25, 2024

I’ve posted several studies sponsored by the blueberry industry , most recently on their effects on menopausal symptoms. Blueberry trade associations, as I discuss in my book Unsavory Truth: How the Food Industry Skews the Science of What We Eat, led the way in promoting research suggesting this fruit is a “superfood.” If only. They are still at it, apparently, but sponsorship does not always guarantee the desired outcome.

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Food Politics

MARCH 22, 2024

Austin Frerick. Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry. Island Press, 2024. With an Introduction by Eric Schlosser. Wow. This is one important book. Frerick’s thesis is that a small number of individuals or families have been allowed to accumulate unconscionable levels of wealth by exploiting or getting around laws (mostly legally but sometimes with bribes), pressuring government to collude, and doing everything possible to enrich themselves at the expense of co

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Food Politics

MARCH 20, 2024

In case you haven’t been keeping track, virtually all corn, cotton, and soybeans (and sugar beets not on this graph) are genetically modified. Not only that, but they take up more than half of all cropland in the United States. And half the corn is used to fuel automobiles. Monoculture, control of the food supply, and lack of biodiversity, anyone? The post Genetic modification of basic food-and-fuel crops: basically all appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle.

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Food Politics

MARCH 19, 2024

Science Magazine has this editorial headline: Reverse EU’s growing greenlash ** After several weeks of violent protests, European farmers have achieved a tactical triumph that does not bode well for the future of environmental policies. Let’s stop right here at “farmers.” This is not the right word. This editorial is talking about industrial agricultural producers—Big Ag—not small organic farmers using regenerative principles.

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Food Politics

MARCH 15, 2024

Tracey Harris and Terry Gibbs. Food in a Just World: Compassionate Eating in a Time of Climate Change. Polity Books, 2024. I blurbed it: Food in a Just World is an up-to-the-minute introduction to issues of class, race, and gender—and species—in what we eat, as well as to how larger issues of economics and capitalism affect workers in the meat industry.

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Food Politics

MARCH 14, 2024

I’m constantly being asked what food will look like in the future, so I’ve been collecting items about new-and-unusual foods headed our way. Do these bode well for the future of food? You decide. New Foods New nutritional substitute? Donkey milk touted as potential ingredient for infant and ageing products: Researchers have argued that the rich and diverse content of proteins in donkey milk could promote cell growth and proliferation, stimulate the immune system, exert anti-ageing effects, and

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Food Politics

MARCH 13, 2024

A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post explains why the FDA should establish front-of-package nutrition labeling here and now: These countries are doing nutrition labels the right way Christina Roberto, Alyssa Moran, and Kelly Brownell contrast the “ stop signs you’ll see in Mexico, the Nutri-Score system used in France, or the Health Star Ratings in New Zealand” with the current lack of a system like those in the United States.

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Food Politics

MARCH 12, 2024

The FDA Announces Qualified Health Claim for Yogurt and Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. FDA intends to consider exercising its enforcement discretion for the following qualified health claims: “Eating yogurt regularly, at least 2 cups (3 servings) per week, may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. FDA has concluded that there is limited information supporting this claim.

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Food Politics

MARCH 11, 2024

Since it’s Monday when I post industry-funded studies anyway, I will add one more of these to last week’s collection. This one comes from an articles in The Conversation: Big companies, like Nestlé, are funding health research in South Africa – why this is wrong. In 2021, the director of the African Research University Alliance Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of Pretoria was appointed to the board of the transnational food corporation Nestlé.

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