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Arizona Confirms 2 Avian Flu Infections as California Probes Second Potential Case in a Child
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) on Dec. 6 reported the state’s first human avian flu patients, both of whom were exposed to infected poultry at a commercial farm in Pinal County. If confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cases would push the national total to 60 and the number of state reporting human cases to eight.
In a statement, the ADHS said both patients had mild symptoms, received treatment, and have recovered. It added that two avian flu outbreaks have recently been reported in the state: one at a Pinal County layer farm that had more than 790,000 birds and the other in a backyard flock in Maricopa County that has 490 birds.
Red Food Dye Could Soon Be Banned as FDA Reviews Petition: ‘Scary Stuff’
A widely used artificial food dye could soon be outlawed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving to ban an artificial food coloring called Red No. 3, also known as Erythrosine. The synthetic dye, which is made from petroleum, is used as a color additive in food and ingested drugs to give them a “bright cherry-red color,” according to an online statement from the FDA.
“With Red 3, we have a petition in front of us to revoke the authorization board, and we’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll be acting on that petition,” Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, told a U.S. Senate health committee on Thursday.
Do You Need to Throw out Your Black Plastic Cooking Utensils? Experts Weigh In.
That black plastic spatula in your kitchen drawer? It may be time to toss it. Recently, there’s been lots of buzz about the dangers of cooking with black plastic utensils — think spoons, spatulas and more. The main claim: Using black plastic to stir things in your pots and pans over heat can release chemicals into your food that you will ingest.
One study even suggests that the main problem is the use of unregulated recycled plastics in these cooking utensils, so you may be getting items that have flame retardants in them — which can become toxic when exposed to heat. We spoke to experts specializing in food science and environmentalism to determine if there is any truth to these claims — and help you decide if you need to toss your black plastic utensils.
It’s recycled plastic that can cause problems. This is because they may contain harmful additives not intended for use with food. “One example of that is flame retardants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers,” says Li. “These chemicals are added to non-food-contacting plastics to prevent them from catching fire at high temperatures. But they cannot be destroyed during the recycling process and thus they will appear if that recycled material is turned into cooking utensils.”
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There’s a ‘Sweet Spot’ for Daily Sugar Intake & Heart Health
When it comes to sweets, the type a person chooses can have a significant impact on their heart health, a new study finds. Sugary drinks significantly increase a person’s risk of stroke, heart failure, irregular heartbeat and other heart health problems, results showed. But adding honey to a bowl of oatmeal or eating an occasional sweet pastry doesn’t appear to drastically harm heart health, and in some cases might improve it, researchers found.
“The most striking finding from our study is the divergent relationship between different sources of added sugar and cardiovascular disease risk,” said researcher Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral candidate at Lund University in Sweden. “This surprising contrast highlights the importance of considering not just the amount of sugar consumed, but its source and context,” Janzi said.
US Issues Order Mandating Bird Flu Testing of Milk Supply
The U.S. issued a federal order on Friday mandating that the national milk supply be tested for bird flu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters, as authorities seek to grapple with rapid spread of the virus among dairy herds.
Bird flu has infected more than 500 dairy herds in top milk state California, and more than 700 nationwide since March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, raising concerns of the impact to farmers and the milk supply as well as the risk to human health from ongoing spread.
Nearly 60 people have contracted the virus since April, most of them workers on infected poultry and dairy farms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The symptoms have been mild and CDC officials have said the risk to the general public from bird flu is low.
Yes, the Number of Food Recalls Has Been Rising. Here’s What You Need to Know
It’s been a year of high-profile food recalls. A deadly listeria outbreak led to a massive recall of Boar’s Head deli meat. Contaminated onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and organic carrots were linked to E. coli outbreaks. And in late November, federal authorities launched an investigation into cucumbers contaminated with salmonella.
“I think that this most recent spate of outbreaks and recalls has made the average American consumer more anxious about food safety,” says Darin Detwiler, a longtime food safety advocate and professor at Northeastern University. Even before the Boar’s Head recall, a Gallup poll in July found Americans’ confidence in the government to ensure a safe U.S. food supply had sunk to a record low.
Mediterranean Diet, Low Exposure to Organic Pollutants Reduces Gestational Diabetes Risk
Among pregnant women, having low persistent organic pollutant exposure enhanced the protective association of an alternate Mediterranean diet against gestational diabetes, according to results published in Diabetes Care. “These combined associations were more pronounced in pregnant women who were overweight or obese before pregnancy,” Cuilin Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, founding director of the Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and principal investigator with the Bia-Echo Asia Centre for Reproductive Longevity and Equality at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine with the National University of Singapore, and colleagues wrote.
Adoption of healthy diet plans such as the alternate Mediterranean diet (aMED) is commonly recommended to prevent the development of gestational diabetes. Ironically, several major food components of aMED, including root and leaf vegetables and seafood, are sources of certain persistent organic pollutants, which have been shown to increase risk for cardiometabolic disorders including gestational diabetes, according to the researchers.
