Food Law Prof Blog

Michael Pollan interview on YouTube

From cookingupastory.com: Michael Pollan talks about his recent book, In Defense of Food, in Portland, Oregon.  Here's the blurb:

Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food, provides the backdrop for his talk at the Bagdad Theater in Portland, Oregon, and this prior interview with Deborah Kane of the environmental nonprofit organization, Ecotrust. Remarkably, Mr. Pollan is talking about a defense of food in a literal sense: it's increasingly difficult to escape from eating foods that are food-like substances (processed foods), but are not whole (real) foods. We have come to look upon "nutritionism" as a valid means of determining (healthy) value in our diet; food has been reduced to its composition of good and bad nutrients, but are we really eating healthier? In part one, we see how simple changes in food labeling requirements can influence consumer behavior, and how food manufacturer's apply overwhelming pressure to effect laws that ultimately protect their own interests.

And the first part of the video:

Michael Pollan part 2

Michael Pollan part  3

Michael Pollan part 4

Food Stamp Use Approaches a Record High

The New York Times reported that the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach a record high of 28 million this year (the U.S. population is estimated at over 303 million; therefore nearly 10% of the U.S. population is receiving food stamps).

According to the article, although food stamp use has fluctuated since the program was implemented in the 1960’s, the recent upward trend is attributed to economic slowdown and inflation.  In Michigan, one in 8 residents now receives food stamps, and the caseload has more than doubled since 2000. 
Food stamp eligibility is determined by a complex formula, but generally recipients must have incomes below 130% of the poverty line.

Congress is considering bills that would alter the food stamp eligibility formula to more closely track the cost of living, but the bills may be stalled as part of partisan farm policy disagreements.   The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed the current status of the farm bill in Congress. 

A short history of the food stamp program is available from at the USDA website.

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Ellen Laine for preparing this post.

KFC wins "Teadog set meal" lawsuit

This story is being reported all over the internet.  It relies on translations from a Chinese news article, but the issue is more or less clear, even if the translations are not:

Tongzhou District court ruled on Tuesday that the two plaintiffs surnamed Jin would not get compensation from the KFC fast-food chain as they couldn't provide substantive evidence to prove the set meal had led to a "lower social evaluation" and reputation damage to them, as they claimed.

The meal was advertised under the name “Teadog Set Meal,” which the patron took to mean “man and dog sharing meal.”

He then sued KFC for insulting consumers, because "according to the advertisement, my grandson has eaten dog food and we two have become 'dog friends'", -- a term that means "a dissolute company" in Chinese.

Note: Substantive Evidence is defined as “Evidence offered to help establish a fact in issue” Black’s Law Dictionary  (7th ed. 1999). 

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Emily Brooks-Lipor for finding this story and preparing this post.

Mom was right! Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day

On March 25, 2008, The New York Times reported that researchers have found adolescents that eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight.  According to The Times, the authors of the study “found a direct relationship between eating breakfast and body mass index.”  Essentially, the more often a child eats breakfast, the lower the B.M.I.

The five-year longitudinal study was completed by researchers and professors at the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota.  The study examined a racially and economically diverse sample from various public schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The study, Breakfast Eating and Weight Change in a 5-Year Prospective Analysis of Adolescents: Project EAT (Eating Among Teens) was published in the March issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.   

The study’s objective was to examine the association between breakfast frequency and 5-year body weight change in adolescents.  The study primarily relied on self-reports of weight and eating habits of 2,216 adolescents.  Although the study concluded there is an association between breakfast frequency and change in BMI, the study was unable to determine whether the association is in fact causal in nature.  The study itself recognizes this in noting “long-term studies…will be needed to evaluate the possibility of an important causal link between breakfast consumption and risk for obesity and chronic diseases.”  The study hopes that interventions, especially in a school setting, could be aimed at promoting a healthy breakfast.  Such a breakfast might include whole grain cereals, low-fat milk, and fresh fruit.

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Maureen Ventura for preparing this post.

Is it Food? Cornflake sells for $1350

A single cornflake shaped like the state of Illinois has reportedly been sold on eBay for $1350.

Here's the fun part for me. According to CNN:

McIntire and her sister Emily, 15, listed the cornflake on eBay last week, but eBay canceled the auction, saying it violated the Web site's policy against selling food.

Under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 USC sec. 321(f), "food" means:

(1) articles used for food or drink for man or other animals,

(2) chewing gum, and

(3) articles used for components of any such article.

So my Sunday morning time-waster question is, when a single cornflake becomes a thousand-dollar collector's item, is still "food"?

eBay has evidently decided that small quantities of cornflakes are not food; a quick search for "corflake" on eBay came up with 37 offerings.  It looks like a motivated collector could start building a 50-states collection.

CROI: Pre-Chewed Food Passes HIV to Children

When HIV-positive mothers or caregivers pre-chew an infant's food, they may transmit the virus to the child, investigators reported at CROI 2008, the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections last week. 

From a MedPage Today Article (Including news video featuring Dr. Kenneth Dominguez):

The cases came to light when local doctors were unable to find other modes of HIV transmission.  Together with local authorities in Memphis and Miami, CDC researchers conducted an intensive investigation before concluding that food, pre-chewed by a caregiver, had been the way the three children contracted the virus.

In two cases, the mother was HIV-positive and transmitted the virus to her child, while in the third case -- with an HIV-negative mother -- the virus was passed from an infected great aunt who had been caring for the infant..

Gaur AH, et al "Practice of offering a child pre-masticated (pre-chewed) food: an unrecognized possible risk factor for HIV transmission" CROI 2008; Abstract 613b. Abstract: http://www.retroconference.org/2008/Abstracts/31723.htm

Link to Aidsmap a worldwide AIDS news and information source

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Emily Brooks-Lipor for preparing this post.

Pollinating Our Future: Urban Agriculture Conference Feb 28 in Milwaukee

From Businesswire.com: The Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network announces its first annual “Pollinating Our Future: Urban Agriculture Conference” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin February 28 – March 1, 2008 at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center. Keynote speaker, Michael Ableman, award-winning urban farmer, author and educator heads a line-up of leading sustainability experts in presenting the revolutionary power of urban agriculture.

Conference speakers and attendees will address important and controversial issues facing cities today focused on Food Justice, Garden as Community, Policy and Planning and Enterprise Development with workshops, forums, film, exhibits, and Town Hall meeting.

From the Urban Agriculture Conference website:

• Urban agriculture(UA) supports food security and healthy nutrition.
• UA provides employment and income.
• UA can turn urban wastes into a productive resource.
• UA can positively impact the greening and cleaning of the micro-climate.
• UA provides a powerful learning experience for school children.
• UA creates community.
  
  “To grow your own food gives you a sort of power and it gives people dignity. You know exactly what you’re eating because you grew it.  It’s good, it’s nourishing and you did this for yourself, your family and your community.” Karen Washington

Heksher Tzedek -- kosher food with a conscience

From Fair Trade News:

Rabbi Morris Allen, of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN, has been promoting kashrut, Jewish dietary laws, to his congregation for twenty years. He says that kashrut provides “a way in which we as Jews understand a daily opportunity to sanctify our lives, to create a sense of holiness and a sense of awareness of God in our lives.” This consciousness means that Allen takes his food and its production seriously.

More than a year ago, Allen learned of labor abuses at an Iowa kosher meat processing plant that supplied the Twin Cities Jewish community. He was faced with a contradiction: The worker may slaughter an animal according to the laws of kashrut, but he or she may be underpaid and mistreated. What if the ritual is observed, but the ethics are undermined?

Allen distinguishes between “ritual,” the letter of the law that describes specific procedures for kosher slaughter and food handling, and the ethics of how kosher food is actually produced. While he does not privilege one over the other, he thinks current certification practices do. According to Allen, “kashrut has become more...  more

Link to the Heksher Tzedek website

Theatre: Milk-n-Honey -- food politics and fair trade snacks at New York's Lightbox Theatre

If you're in New York, this show runs through this weekend at the Lightbox Theatre:

Part fiction, part documentary, and based in part on interviews conducted with people whose backgrounds are as diverse as farmers, food scholars, hunters, waiters, ad men, immigrant workers, diabetics, and dumpster divers (known as "freegans"), MILK 'N' HONEY is a large-scale multi-media play that looks at food and appetite in the 21st century:  the play's interweaving storylines follow a couple whose marriage is at stake as they differ about what food to put on the table, a grocery store clerk who forages through dumpsters, immigrant farm workers, a family that struggles with diabetes, a flavor chemist who attempts to capture the flavor of light, et.al.

The themes of food and consumption will be underscored in MILK 'N' HONEY as an actor consumes an entire meal -- from soup to nuts, from "curtain up" to "lights out" -- on stage as part of every performance of the play.

MILK 'N' HONEY was developed in part through LightBox's participation in several recent food conferences including Princeton University's Food, Ethics & the Environment Conference; The Foundry's Food 101 Conference on food policy in New York City; and W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Food and Society Conference.

Following each performance of MILK 'N' HONEY, the 3LD space transforms into the After-Show Cafe, where audience members can eat free locally made food and participate in discussions, cooking demos, book signings and other activities led by LightBox partners, including Slow Food, Just Food, FoodChange, the Small Planet Institute, World Hunger Year, Good Food (arts engine) and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The After-Show Cafe will be run by the Lower East Side Girls Club, with coffee donated by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

Chocolate beer from the dawn of time

I saw a blurb in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about archaeologists who found chocolate residue in 3000- year old pots in Honduras.  The L A Times carried a longer article:

Cacao beans were first used for alcohol, research finds

Humans began exploiting cacao beans for alcohol before they started using them to make chocolate, according to new findings from a remote Honduran village that push the earliest known use of cacao back about 500 years.

Residue scraped from pottery vessels dating to 1400 B.C. to 1100 B.C. indicate that residents of the Ulua Valley fermented the sweet pulp of the chocolate plant to make an alcoholic drink well before they began grinding the bitter seeds and mixing them with honey and chiles to produce the equivalent of modern cocoa.

Same article in the Arizona Sun, with a photo of an Aztec statue featuring a cacao pod: Chocolate use goes back 500 years earlier, but as alcohol first

Farm Policy a cause of obesity?

From the Danville Register Bee:

Fat? Blame Congress, at least partly
By SEAN MUSSENDEN, Media General News Service

. . .

It costs far less to get the calories from unhealthy foods with added oils or sweeteners than it does from nutritious foods like fresh vegetables. Energy-dense foods made with subsidized crops like soybean oil and high-fructose corn syrup have been linked to heart disease and diabetes.

"There's a huge cost disparity. It's not a coincidence that low-income people will gravitate towards cheaper, energy-dense foods that are nutritionally poor," said Adam Drewnowski, director of the nutritional sciences program at the University of Washington.

His studies have found that foods made from subsidized crops - like cookies and soda -- cost five times less per calorie than unsubsidized foods -- like carrots or orange juice.

Drewnowski finds it ironic that the Agriculture Department encourages people to eat vegetables like lettuce or carrots that are not subsidized, and therefore more expensive, while giving people an economic incentive through subsidies to buy foods it says they should eat sparingly.

"The farm bill is geared to production of calories, not nutrients," he said. "It's resulted in a diet that is energy rich but nutritionally poor."

more

Study says Americans prefer junk food

From Science Daily:

Price And Taste Trump Nutrition When Americans Eat Out

Americans are less willing to pay more for healthy dishes, less knowledgeable about healthy menu items, and more likely to consider healthy items bland-tasting than they were three years ago, finds a Temple University analysis.

UK air-freight food organic if it aids poor

Even more interesting than the last post (on organic air-freight produce), Reuters reports that a food's "organic" status may depend on who gets to eat it:

UK organic group says air-freight food ok if aids poor

LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Britain's largest organic food association said on Wednesday it will continue to put its stamp of approval on products sent by air freight, but only if the food sales help poor farmers.

The Soil Association, which certifies over 70 percent of organic produce sold in Britain, had previously debated refusing to certify products shipped by air freight because of high carbon emissions from airplanes.

"We recognise that building alternative markets that offer the same social and economic benefits as organic exports take time," Anna Bradley, chairwoman of the Soil Association Standards Board told a news conference.

"Our aim is to minimise airfreight by encouraging alternatives, such other forms of shipping, and creating local organic markets," she said.

The group said details of the proposal would be open to discussion throughout 2008 and would become effective from January 2009.

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University of Wisconsin to lead Farm-to-School efforts in Midwest

UW news release:

UW center will lead efforts to expand farm-to-school programs in Midwest

The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named as lead agency in a six-state area for a new national program to encourage schools to serve more locally grown food.

As regional lead agency for the National Farm-to-School Network, CIAS will be the hub for farm-to-school activities in the Great Lakes region, encompassing Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana.

The national network is supported by a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The national network allots funds to the regional agencies with the proviso that its contributions be matched dollar-for-dollar with funds from other sources.

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LA Times on Biotech foods

The Los Angeles Times science section ran an interesting piece on biotech foods.  There's not really anything new, but it describes the issues pretty well (IMHO):

Biotech foods are still hard to swallow, by Elena Conis

OPPONENTS call them Frankenfoods, man-made aberrations that should be banished from our grocery stores or at least clearly labeled so consumers know what they're eating.

Supporters have long cast genetically modified foods in a different light: as answers to human problems. They would, the dream went, make crops that didn't rot, spoil or succumb to frost. They would boost harvests, feed the hungry and fortify the malnourished.

Several decades later, very few of those goals have been realized. Yet today, largely unbeknownst to most consumers, more than 70% of processed foods on grocery store shelves contain genetically engineered or biotech ingredients.

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Codex Alimentarius Public Meeting November 1

Codex: The USDA has posted information about an upcoming public meeting:

The public meeting for 16th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) will be held on November 1, 2007 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. to discuss the agenda items coming before the 16th Session and present draft positions on the agenda items. Call-in capability will be provided upon request. The 16th Session of CCFICS will be held November 26–30, 2007 in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, Australia. The meeting will be held in Room 0161 of the South Agricultural Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC. (Smithsonian Metro stop). (See Public Meetings for additional meetings.)

Anatomy of a school lunch -- Barriers to organic food

National School Lunch Week -- an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer outlines the challenges to school lunch programs trying to serve healthier, more local food:

Many barriers keep organic food out of school lunches by Jennifer Langston

. . .

The ingredients in this single school lunch of nachos served in September traveled more than 7,500 highway miles before reaching a cafeteria tray in Seattle.

The beef came from California ranches by way of a federal program that provides commodity items to schools at no cost. Tomatoes ripened in the San Joaquin Valley. Beans likely traveled from Minnesota or North Dakota.

Those items could have been bought from farms in our backyard, but weren't.

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Young vegetarians

USA Today reports that more young people are choosing to be vegetarian.  My kids are right in there, then.  (At this point, eggs and cheese are still in, but my 12 year old swore off fish a year ago.  And the eggs and cheese have to come from farms that treat their animals nicely -- no debeaking or large herds.)  Excerpt:

Hema Sundaram, a dermatologist in Rockville, Md., near Washington, was pleasantly surprised this spring when her 13-year-old daughter's overnight summer science camp at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore sent a pre-camp letter offering vegetarian meal options. Sundaram says Vidya and her 9-year-old brother Giri's private school, Sidwell Friends in Washington, also provides vegetarian entrees.

"In my grade, about five of us out of 100 are vegetarians," she says. "I feel comfortable going into the kitchen and asking the cook if the soup has chicken stock. There's a great salad bar, and they always provide us with pasta and a meat-free sauce."

Young people cite a host of reasons for going meat-free, such as personal taste, concerns about animal treatment, environmental questions surrounding livestock and the influence of peers and celebrities.

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Food Fussiness may be inherited

This explains a lot. AP article by Maria Cheng

LONDON -- Having trouble persuading your child to eat broccoli or spinach? You may have only yourself to blame.

According to a study of twins, neophobia -- or the fear of new foods -- is mostly in the genes.

"Children could actually blame their mothers for this," said Jane Wardle, director of the Health Behavior Unit at University College London, one of the authors of the study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Wardle and colleagues asked the parents of 5,390 pairs of identical and non-identical twins to complete a questionnaire on their children's' willingness to try new foods.

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Parke Wilde Hosts U.S. Food Policy TV

Professor Parke Wilde (Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts) has diversified from blogging (U.S. Food Policy Blog) to YouTube. 

Episode One of U.S. Food Policy TV aired in August and focused on the Eat Local Challenge.

In Episode Two, Parke interviews Brian Wansink (Marketing, Cornell), author of Mindless Eating:

Brian Wansink is author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. In this interview, we discuss the Ig Nobel Award in Nutrition, the Bottomless Soup Bowl, the McSubway Study, the misleading power of the "Halo Effect," and whether it is hopeless to seek to change food and nutrition policy.

I am a great fan of both Wilde and Wansink, so I am only posting the link to the blog -- you can see the YouTube video there. (Click here)

Food, Law, and Culture panel presenters wanted

Christopher Buccafusco (Phd candidate, U. Chicago) is soliciting paper presentations for panels on "Food, Law, and Culture" for the annual Law, Culture, and Humanities Conference to be held at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University, March 28-29, 2008. The conference is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities.

Last year we organized two panels with papers on such topics as the legal regulation of margarine, taxation and the family farm, cultural identity and the 21st Amendment, and federal school lunch programs. Recent work in the humanities and social sciences has begun to explore food’s role in culture, and our goal will be to apply this interdisciplinary scholarship to critically examine the place(s) of food in the law. Important questions include: How can we explain the law’s varying treatment of food? What role does law play in shaping cultural ideas about food and food production? And, inversely, how does food culture affect the law? My work, for example, analyzes the treatment of culinary creativity by modern intellectual property law.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

Intellectual property rights in genetically modified foods Hunger strikes and force-feeding prisoners Last meals Food torts, e.g,. exploding sodas, fingers in chili, coffee in the lap Government regulation of food and alcohol Obesity regulation Dietary laws and regulations in different cultures Trademark rights in appellations of origin Farm subsidies and international trade Linguistic classification of food, e.g. kosher, 1st Growths, Organic Sumptuary laws Famine Labeling, packaging, and branding Rationing Food stamps Ethanol production and the food supply

The deadline for submissions to the conference is October 15, 2007, so please let me know as soon as possible if you think you might be interested in joining the panel. Abstracts can wait until closer to the deadline. Also, please circulate this to any colleagues that might be interested. Feel free to contact Chris Buccafusco directly at chrstphr@uchicago.edu.

Church and Plate?

Spirituality spurs growth in organic ventures (from the Austin American-Statesman website)

By Joan Nathan
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday, August 25, 2007

HOWARD, S.D. — Near a prairie dotted with cattle and green with soy beans, barley, corn and oats, two bearded Hasidic men dressed in black pray outside a slaughterhouse here that is managed by an evangelical Christian.

What brought these men together could easily have kept them apart: religion.

The two Hasidim oversee shehitah, the Jewish ritual slaughtering of meat according to the Book of Leviticus. The meat is then shipped to Wise Organic Pastures, a kosher food company in Brooklyn owned by Issac Wiesenfeld and his family. When Wiesenfeld sought an organic processor that used humane methods five years ago, he found Scott Lively, who was just beginning Dakota Beef, now one of the largest organic meat processors in the country.

read more

British study shows poor eat as well as the rest

The reported findings of this study surprised me.  From the Times Online:

Food experts have argued for years that the poorest families suffer from “food poverty”, meaning they consume less nourishing food than the better-off and are at greater risk of long-term health problems.

But [a] £5m study by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) – which looked at the eating habits of 3,500 people – found the nutritional value of the food eaten by the poorest 15% in society was little different from the average.

The study also found the rate of obesity, which has often been linked to poverty, was at a similar level among the poor as it is in the general population.

This doesn't mean the poor are eating well in Britain, just that there's not as big a difference as we might have expected.

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, said: “It flies in the face of previous research showing social inequality having a direct impact upon health. But it can’t be dismissed because it’s a large and significant study and it shows that we are all eating just as bad a diet as each other.”

Read the rest of the report

Kids resist healthy eating efforts

This one is kind of depressing. An Associated Press article by Martha Mendoza says that nutrition education efforts aren't working.

PANORAMA CITY, Calif. -- The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education -- fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way children eat -- or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. . . .

The results have been disappointing :

Last year a major federal pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to school children showed fifth-graders became less willing to eat them than they had been at the start. Apparently they didn't like the taste.

Read the AP article in the Boston Globe

Diabetes and Obesity More Likely in Harlem

From ABC News:

A new report says Harlem residents are at a greater risk for obesity and diabetes.

According to the Health Department East and Central Harlem's health food availability is very low.

The report says Harlem has many bodegas and corner stores but they are about half as likely to carry low-fat dairy products and seven times less likely to offer certain common vegetables as their Upper East Side counterparts.

"Bodegas are convenient but offer fewer healthy options," said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden. "And there are three times as many fast-food restaurants per person in Harlem as there are in nearby neighborhoods. Diabetes and heart disease - which are related to an unhealthy diet - cause more than a third of deaths in East and Central Harlem each year. All New Yorkers should have the option to buy healthy foods in their neighborhoods."

"Eating Well in Harlem: How Available Are Healthy Foods?" compares all food establishments in East and Central Harlem to a sample of Upper East Side locations.

Read the story (includes link to the study)

Healthy Food in New Orleans?

The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University is working towards making New Orleans a healthier place to live post Katrina. 

From the Tulane University website:

The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University, together with six partner organizations, wants to improve access to fresh, healthy food in New Orleans.

Calling itself the Partnership to Pursue a Food Policy Advisory Committee, the group includes members from Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, the City of New Orleans Health Department, Steps to a Healthier LA/New Orleans, the Louisiana Public Health Institute, the Renaissance Project and the New Orleans Food & Farm Network.

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Michael Pollan on Obesity and the Farm Bill

Michael Pollan (Journalism, UC Berkeley; author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) had an interesting piece in the New York Times last week.  You Are What You Grow explores the connections between farm subsidies, the price of junk food, and inverse relationship between obesity and income.

"A few years ago, an obesity researcher at the University of Washington named Adam Drewnowski ventured into the supermarket to solve a mystery. He wanted to figure out why it is that the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth. For most of history, after all, the poor have typically suffered from a shortage of calories, not a surfeit. So how is it that today the people with the least amount of money to spend on food are the ones most likely to be overweight?

Drewnowski gave himself a hypothetical dollar to spend, using it to purchase as many calories as he possibly could. He discovered that he could buy the most calories per dollar in the middle aisles of the supermarket, among the towering canyons of processed food and soft drink. (In the typical American supermarket, the fresh foods — dairy, meat, fish and produce — line the perimeter walls, while the imperishable packaged goods dominate the center.) Drewnowski found that a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips but only 250 calories of carrots. Looking for something to wash down those chips, he discovered that his dollar bought 875 calories of soda but only 170 calories of orange juice."

Read the rest

Yale Panel Discusses Science of Food at Yale

From the Yale Daily News:

Food at Yale,” a panel discussion in Linsly-Chittenden Hall on Wednesday evening, covered topics ranging from food’s origins in the soil to the salad that ends up in Commons. Representatives of Dining Services, the Yale Sustainable Food Project, the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and Old Maid’s Farm answered questions on a variety of food- and sustainability-related issues.

One of the intriguing suggestions was that eating healthier food might make students more punctual.  The Yale Sustainable Food Project did a pilot project at Berkely (Why are Berkelyites better guinea pigs than Yalies, I wonder?).

Although there were no major differences between the GPAs of Berkeley students and those of students in other colleges, Berkeleyites were more punctual for classes and deadlines, and they slept less in class than students in other residential colleges, Novak said. She suggested that students eating YSFP meals may have received certain psychological benefits from the healthier, sustainable food.

Soda Drinkers Consume More Calories

A study published in April's American Journal of Public Health finds that people who drink sugary soda do not reduce their caloric intake from other sources.  Overall, they tend to consume more calories than non-soda drinkers, and tend to become obese more often. 

Effects of Soft Drink Consumption on Nutrition and Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Lenny R. Vartanian, PhD, Marlene B. Schwartz, PhD and Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, American Journal of Public Health, April 2007.

Abstract: In a meta-analysis of 88 studies, we examined the association between soft drink

consumption and nutrition and health outcomes. We found clear associations of soft drink intake

with increased energy intake and body weight. Soft drink intake also was associated with lower

intakes of milk, calcium, and other nutrients and with an increased risk of several medical

problems (e.g., diabetes).

Study design significantly influenced results: larger effect sizes were observed in studieswith stronger methods (longitudinal and experimental vs cross-sectional studies). Several

other factors also moderated effect sizes (e.g., gender, age, beverage type). Finally, studies

funded by the food industry reported significantly smaller effects than did non–industry-funded

studies. Recommendations to reduce population soft drink consumption are strongly

supported by the available science.

Oregon Considering Banning Junk Food from Schools

The Oregon legislature is considering a bill that would require school foods to be healthy, but the measure is controversial. 

We're teenagers. We don't want healthy food," explained Kaleb Lewis, a junior at Portland's Cleveland High School.

The debate is triggered by House Bill 2650, which would cap the amount of fat, sugar and calories for food sold in schools. A House subcommittee took up the measure, the third attempt in three sessions to target junk food in schools.

According to a dietician interviewed for the Oregonian article, at least 10 states have already adopted such legislation.

This is where nutritional information passes through policy on the way to becoming law.  Why cap the amount of fat?  What if the information we have about fat is wrong?  What if the information we have about fat is old and outdated?  What if Atkins is right?  What about almonds?  Could a snack be more healthy than almonds?  Here's what the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has to say about almonds:

Almonds have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, which make up 93% of their total fat content. The most important if these is oleic acid. Frequent consumption of this helps to reduce levels of cholesterol in general and "bad" or LDL cholesterol, while building up "good" or HDL cholesterol. Being a foodstuff of vegetable origin, almonds do not contain cholesterol.

Due to their high vitamin E content, almonds provide an extra dose of antioxidants, playing an important part in the prevention of coronary illness and cancer. A 30g portion of almonds provides 50% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin E. They also contain vitamin B6 in smaller amounts.

Almonds have the highest fibre content of any tree nut, which is important in facilitating and regulating colon transit, so avoiding constipation and preventing cardiovascular illness.
Almonds are an important source of minerals such as calcium, necessary for the formation and maintenance of bones and teeth, magnesium, potassium, copper, phosphorus and zinc.

Finnish working group favors GMOs

A Finnish working group submitted its report to the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture this week.  While I don't usually blog overseas news such as this, the Helsingin Sanomat report on the article does a nice job of setting forth competing considerations in a straightforward fashion.  Finland has not yet adopted genetically modified plants (or been de facto forced to accept them through contamination), but it is looking for ways to increase its agricultural productivity. 

Becoming more competitive is an important goal, and the report recommends not only genetic modification of crops, but also larger farms and tax breaks.

New milk processing method may extend shelf life

Milk is one of the grocery store products most likely to have been produced locally because milk requires constant refrigeration to stay fresh, and even then the shelf life is limited. But this could change.  With a new processing technology, milk could have a longer shelf life.

Researchers in Oregon State University's Department of Food Science and Technology are using an emerging high-pressure technology to process milk at lower temperatures while still maintaining the safety of heat-pasteurized milk. The result is safe milk that tastes fresher and has a longer shelf life than conventionally processed milk.

Researchers had already established that the high pressure process kills microbes without heating milk to temperatures that destroy the flavor.  The OSU study focused on the effect on the flavor of the milk and concluded that the pressure-treated milk tastes fresher.

Press release

"Nutrition Nannies" to advise British Grocery Shoppers

Think Mary Poppins in a grocery store.  The London  Daily Mail reports that a UK supermarket chain is training "nutrition nannies" who will walk the aisles of its stores to provide advice on healthy food choices.  The nannies are part of a program aimed at reducing childhood obesity in the UK by helping families create healthier lifestyles.

Hmmm.  What advice will they provide, I wonder?  Low fat? Low carb? How to cook? 

No more trans fats in NYC

Someone had to be first.  New York City has approved its proposed ban on artificial trans fats in restaurant food.  It is actually only a partial ban -- restaurant foods can still have less than a half a gram per serving, but the regulation is nevertheless significant.

In addition, restaurants that post food composition information anywhere must now provide it on the menu.  The Calorie rule is explicitly intended to help combat obesity.

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene press release.

Parke Wilde's U.S. Food Policy Blog (because he does a nice job and is worth reading)

National "healthy" foods and the junk food culture

<p>As I reported <a href="http://foodlawprof.typepad.com/food_and_nutrition_law_an/2006/12/food_babel_cspi.html">yesterday</a>, the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants the FDA to develop national &quot;healthy&quot; labels. The plea is a response to the plethora of food company labels and symbols on supermarket shelves, and the rationale is that &quot;a prominent and reliable symbol on the fronts of packages would be a tremendous help to those harried shoppers racing through the supermarket.&quot;</p> <p>This makes sense, but I think it misses the bigger picture.&nbsp; Rather than speeding up the Harried-Shopper Race with easy-to-recognize quick-to-grab preprocessed packaged foods, perhaps we should try to eliminate the Harried Shopper Race altogether.&nbsp; What if people actually had time to cook their own foods?&nbsp; (See my<a href="http://foodlawprof.typepad.com/food_and_nutrition_law_an/2006/12/government_shou.html"> post</a> today about British Tory leader David Cameron's comments.) There would be no need to race down the long aisles of prepackaged foods.&nbsp; But this would require a change in culture rather than more rules that seem to be consumer-oriented, but actually function to perpetuate an unhealthy lifestyle and by facilitating the marketing of processed foods.</p>

Government should encourage respect for food

Tory leader turns up the heat on Britain's junk-food society

British Conservative leader David Cameron, speaking in London to members of the Slow Food movement, says government should investigate ways to improve cooking skills, knowledge and principles of nutrition. 

Cameron said that London is the home of some of the world’s best restaurants but as a nation “we just don’t respect food enough”. Too often people treat it like fuel, shovelling it down, any time, any place, anywhere, he said. Instead of valuing fresh, good-quality food, carefully prepared, “We have created a junk-food society” and while some people may argue that junk food is at least cheap food. “[I]n truth it is a false economy. There is a price to be paid for it in our health, our environment and our culture. And in any case it is simply not true to say that fresh, quality food is more expensive than prepackaged, processed products.”

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