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Cinnamon Recall Widens as Warning Issued for Children
More cinnamon products have been recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after they were found to contain lead. El Chilar has expanded a recall first made earlier this year for its “Canela Molida” Ground Cinnamon product after testing found high levels of lead. The recall has now been expanded from two lot codes to six in total.
It’s one of several this year concerning ground cinnamon products made and sold by various manufacturers that have been found to contain lead, exposure to which can be particularly dangerous to children, as well as adults.
The products were sold in Maryland only. They are identifiable by a red and yellow label with black lettering, which reads: “El Chilar Canela Molina Ground Cinnamon.”
Lead is a toxic metal that can build up in the body over time, and exposure is a particular concern for children as their bodies absorb more and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to its damaging effects. If a child is exposed to lead over a long period of time, it can result in learning disorders, developmental defects, and other permanent or long-term health problems, the FDA has warned.
Who’s to Blame for PFAS in Our Drinking Water? Here’s What Hundreds of Cities Say
A USA TODAY analysis of new EPA data shows local officials most frequently blame airports; utilities, such as sewage treatment plants; and military bases as likely sources of toxic “forever chemicals” in their drinking water.
Thousands of public drinking water systems began sampling last year for PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in the Environmental Protection Agency’s largest-ever effort to monitor their spread across the country.
The military is the most common culprit named among the 168 water systems that pointed to a PFAS source and also reported contamination above limits the EPA set earlier this year, USA TODAY’s analysis found. Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Sacramento are among 53 such systems indicating military bases.
Eating Insects Is Not Going to Save the Planet
Regarding your article on eating crickets to save the world (The rise of ‘ento-veganism’: how eating crickets could help save the world, 7 August), it is true that crickets have a lower environmental impact than conventional meat. However, nearly all foods have a lower environmental impact than conventional meat. The trick is not finding something more environmentally friendly than meat, but rather finding something consumers will eat instead of meat.
Most consumers do not want to eat farmed insects, and when they are sold as food, they often come in the form of products like baked goods, pasta or flour, which compete not with meat but with foods possessing comparatively low environmental impacts. A Rabobank report described the share of farmed insects consumed by humans as “negligible.”
Alcohol’s Healthy Halo Dims as Study Finds Drinking May Be Harmful for Older Adults, Even at Low Levels
Americans, and especially those under age 35, are changing their tune on alcohol use, with a growing share endorsing the view that moderate drinking is bad for health — and a new study backs them up.
According to a Gallup poll released Tuesday, almost half of Americans, 45%, say that having one or two alcoholic drinks a day is bad for a person’s health. That’s the highest percentage yet recorded by the survey, which has been conducted 10 times since 2001.
Younger adults are the group most likely to say drinking is bad for health, with 65% in that camp, compared with 37% of adults ages 35 to 54 and 39% of adults 55 and older.
However, the survey also found a 10 percentage point increase in adults 55 and older who reported drinking, and a new study says that could be harmful to their overall health.
Eating These Foods Lowers Dementia Risk, Even With Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease, Study Says
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead of an inflammatory diet focused on red and processed meats and ultra-processed foods, such as sugary cereals, sodas, fries and ice cream, lowered the risk of dementia by 31%, a new study found.
That benefit held true even for people with existing diagnoses of cardiometabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke, said Abigail Dove, lead author of the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
In fact, people living with type 2 diabetes, stroke or heart disease who ate the most anti-inflammatory foods “developed dementia 2 years later than those with cardiometabolic diseases and a pro-inflammatory diet,” she added.
Brain scans of those who followed an anti-inflammatory diet also showed significantly lower levels of brain biomarkers of neurodegeneration and vascular injury, Dove said.
Federal Testing on More Retail Dairy Products Finds No Live H5N1 Virus
A second round of testing of retail dairy products, which includes more products such as cheese and butter and from a broader geographic area, found no live H5N1 avian flu virus in any of the samples, federal officials said today.
At a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) media briefing, Steve Grube, MD, chief medical officer for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), said the testing included 167 samples from 27 states and was designed to provide a more comprehensive picture of H5N1’s impact on different products.
Testing included different cheeses, including some aged varieties made from raw milk, butter, ice cream, and milk.
FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists involved in the study recently published their findings on the medRxiv preprint server, meaning the data have not yet been peer-reviewed. Grube said though 17% of the products had traces of the virus (viral RNA), follow-up testing yielded no viable virus, which he said confirms the effectiveness of commercial pasteurization.
U.S. To Expand Bird-Flu Testing of Beef in Slaughterhouses
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday it will expand bird-flu testing of beef entering the food supply as part of its response to the ongoing outbreak among dairy cattle, adding that U.S. beef and dairy products remain safe to consume.
USDA officials, in a call with reporters along with staff from other U.S. health agencies, said the tests will begin in mid-September and urged livestock workers to remain vigilant.
Florida Sued Over Ban on Lab-Grown Meat
UPSIDE Foods, a company that produces meat cultivated in a lab, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging Florida’s new ban on the production, distribution and sale of lab-grown meat.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, argues the ban unconstitutionally favors in-state businesses at the expense of out-of-state competitors because cultivated meat is produced outside of Florida.
“If some Floridians don’t like the idea of eating cultivated chicken, there’s a simple solution: Don’t eat it,” IJ senior attorney Paul Sherman said. “The government has no right to tell consumers who want to try cultivated meat that they’re not allowed to. This law is not about safety; it’s about stifling innovation and protecting entrenched interests at the expense of consumer choice.”
UPSIDE says its meat is grown directly from real animal cells in an effort to preserve the nature and authentic taste of original meat products without needing to raise and slaughter animals. UPSIDE is one of only two companies in the U.S. authorized to sell lab-grown meat.
