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Eat This, Not That — Why Medical Schools Need to Emphasize Nutrition
I’m a 58-year-old physician and have been overweight most of my life. My average Body Mass Index (BMI) is about 27, which means I am overweight. Despite being a doctor for over three decades, I didn’t know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food until a few years ago.
Though I exercised diligently, I chose to remain ignorant about the risks and harm of the standard American diet, one that is rich in processed carbohydrates and meat and replete in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Being overweight or obese is a serious, common, and costly chronic disease. More than two in five U.S. adults have obesity. By 2030, nearly one of two adults in the U.S. are projected to be obese.
More than half of graduating medical students report that the time dedicated to clinical nutrition instruction is insufficient. In a striking study of 115 medical doctors, the majority of participants (65.2 percent) demonstrated inadequate nutrition knowledge, with 30.4 percent of those scoring low having a high self-perception of their nutrition knowledge.
Bird Flu Outbreak at Colorado Farm as 5 Workers Reported Positive: Experts Warn of ‘Turning Point,’ Call for Urgent Action
For months, fearing that the current version of bird flu had a much higher chance of spreading to humans than previous iterations, experts have pushed for a more aggressive response from U.S. health agencies to reduce human exposure and prevent a potential pandemic. The urgency of those requests is about to rise.
Late on Sunday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported that five people have tested positive for bird flu among workers at an egg farm in Weld County, Colorado. Four of those cases have been confirmed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and one test is pending confirmation.
The cases emanated from a major flu outbreak at the farm, which affected nearly 1.8 million chickens. The workers were in the process of destroying those chickens, a process known as culling.
Colorado’s governor has declared a disaster emergency in response to the outbreak, and the announcement by state health officials of the positive cases represents a grim landmark. It denotes the first time a cluster of human infection has been reported on a single farm in the U.S., and it again raises the stakes on the seriousness of this virus.
“I am extremely concerned that we are on the brink of this being really already in humans — and once it’s in humans, it is going to be a real problem to control,” says Seema Lakdawala, a microbiologist and immunologist at Emory University who specializes in influenza. “I will tell you that what has been driving me the past few months is trying to prevent H5 from becoming a pandemic … I have never felt that we were as close as we are now.”
Baby Formula Warning Over Vulnerability to Forever Chemicals
Nanoplastics and “forever chemicals” have been shown to disrupt the structure and function of key molecules in human breast milk and infant formula, raising concerns about their impact on infant health and development.
Human-made compounds such as plastics and forever chemicals — known scientifically as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS — are becoming increasingly prevalent in our surrounding environment. They are both frequently found in everyday products, such as food packing and baby bottles, and may leach into the foods and liquids contained inside.
Both chemicals have been associated with a range of health conditions. For PFAS, these include increased blood cholesterol and blood pressure, reduced immunity, reproductive issues and an increased risk of certain cancers.
Now, researchers from The University of Texas at El Paso have explored the impacts of these compounds on three key molecules found in breast milk and infant formula which are critical for human development. In all three cases, PFAS and nanoplastics were found to significantly compromise the structure and function of these important proteins.
Top FDA Officials Weighing Regulation of Ultra-Processed Foods, Internal Documents Show
Top Food and Drug Administration officials met multiple times earlier this year to discuss the regulation of ultra-processed foods, according to internal agency calendars obtained by STAT.
Two FDA officials, Haider Warraich and Robin McKinnon, met multiple times in February to discuss regulating these edible industrial creations, such as sodas, prepackaged cookies, and most breakfast cereals. Nutritionists suspect these manufactured foods increase people’s risk for a variety of chronic diseases, though as of now, there is a dearth of rigorous research to back up those claims.
Why Arkansas Farmers Are Moving Away From Certified Organic Produce
Arkansas Farmers around the state are starting to go away from certified organic produce at their farms.
“When they think about farmers’ markets, they have the assumption that, like all the farmers, are using organic practices,” Heather Friedrich, Director of The Center for Arkansas Farms and Food, said. “Many of them are using organic practices, but not many actually go through the certification process.”
Matthew Varoz, the owner of Hatch Farms in Elkins, says one of the main reasons for this is because a different practice exists. It’s called certified naturally grown produce. Many farmers believe it is just as healthy and cheaper to verify.
“It also costs more to be certified organic, and there is a ton of paperwork,” Varoz said. “Being farmers, we are limited on our time, so certified naturally grown just makes it a lot easier for us to accomplish that.”
On top of the cost, becoming certified organic in the state is difficult for Arkansas farmers because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t have a branch in Arkansas, which requires farmers to look out of state.
