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July 2010 Newsbites
Snacks Are 27 Percent of Kids’ Calories
American children are chowing down on high-calorie candies, sugary drinks, and fatty, salty junk foods like never before, according to a nationwide survey of over 31,000 children. Ninety-eight percent of children aged 2 to 18 now eat snacks between meals, compared to 74 percent in the late 1970s, and those aged 2 to 6 are now consuming 181 more snack calories than 20 years ago. Other trends include drinking less milk and eating less fresh fruit. Snacks now account for 27 percent of kids’ calories, with obvious consequences for tooth decay and early development of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. (UNC at Chapel Hill, 3/2/10)
Organic Answer to ADHD
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.5 million American children have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Pesticides in fruits and vegetables could be a reason, according to a study by the University of Montreal and Harvard. The research team checked the levels of organophosphate insecticide metabolites in the urine of 1,136 children and found that every ten-fold increase was associated with a 55-percent or larger increase in ADHD. Pesticide-treated produce, especially when imported, is the most likely source. Earlier research in Washington State found that children who ate organic foods for two weeks had much lower levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine. (organic-center.com, 5/17/10)
Assault on Science
We would be better off eating much less salt-to the tune of saving 150,000 American lives a year. We currently consume 3,000 to 8,000 mg of sodium a day, but we don’t really need more than 1,500 mg, let alone the recommended allowance of 2,300 mg. That’s the opinion of most public health experts, including the Institute of Medicine. The FDA has proposed a plan to rein in the biggest offenders, restaurants and food manufacturers. Not surprisingly, there’s now a corporate-funded Salt Institute whose mission is to do what the tobacco and fossil-fuel industries have done before it: create the illusion of scientific doubt. (Yahoo! News, 6/5/10)
A Good Tomato?
Speaking of illusions, genetic engineers are hard at work trying to create a commercial tomato that tastes good. We’ve bred tomato plants to produce more and bigger fruit, but the plants don’t have the capacity to fill those fruits with the sugars, nutrients and other flavor compounds that make a tomato nourishing and flavorful. So the tomato ends up containing lots of water and little of anything else. The biotech folks want to fix this, not by increasing the nutrient content, but by increasing the volatile compounds that give tomatoes their distinctive smell. (NPR Morning Edition, 5/28/2010) It sounds to us like one more reason to avoid genetically engineered foods and “go natural” with some heirloom tomatoes.
This Is Cheap Oil?
The International Energy Agency has determined that in 2008 fossil fuels were subsidized worldwide to the tune of $557 billion. It recommends phasing out those subsidies in order to allow other energy sources to compete more fairly and hasten a transition to sustainable and less-polluting energy sources. (Green Tech - CNET News, 6/8/10)
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