Food for Thought
- Health & Medicine
When It’s No Longer Baby Fat
Increasingly, children are plump by the time they enter school, and they get fatter as they grow.
- Health & Medicine
Stronger Proof That Trans Fats Are Bad
New evidence confirms that eating lots of trans fats can lead to heart problems.
- Health & Medicine
A Virus Crosses Over to Wild-Animal Hunters
A potentially dangerous virus is moving from nonhuman primates to Africans who hunt and eat wild animals, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Fishy Advice—Which Tuna Is Best for You?
Canned light tuna is a good choice for people who want to lower their intake of mercury.
- Health & Medicine
Suspected Carcinogen Speeds Through People’s Bodies
A commonly used but potentially carcinogenic flavoring compound stays in people's bodies only briefly.
- Health & Medicine
Formula for Failure
A bacterium that has been known to cause rare, yet fatal infections in infants appears to be more widespread than scientists have realized.
- Agriculture
Fishy Alpha Males
As a way to protect wild fish stocks, raising genetically engineered fish may be futile should some of these modified fish escape into the environment.
- Health & Medicine
Tea for Too Much Bilirubin?
A special tea may be an alternative to fluorescent lights for treating newborns who suffer from jaundice.
- Health & Medicine
Calcium Superchargers
Foods such as yogurts supplemented with fiberlike sugars are developing into the latest wave in functional foods–commercial goods seeded with ingredients that boost their nutritiousness or healthfulness. Makers of foods doctored with these unusual, nearly flavorless sugars claim that their products improve the body’s absorption of calcium in the diet, thereby offering bones a treat. […]
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria Brew a B Vitamin Boost
When looking for naturally rich sources of cobalamin, better known as vitamin B12, most people turn to meats. Because the essential nutrient generally isn’t present in plants, vegetarians run the risk of deficiency, which can cause neurological symptoms from tingling toes to disorientation and memory problems. Many of these people therefore turn to synthetic supplements […]
- Health & Medicine
A Swiss Paradox?
Gstaad, Switzerland, has gained renown for its challenging ski trails and celebrity sightings. Come summer, however, the area’s slopes host cows, not skiers. It now appears that milk from those cows produces cheeses rich in some heart-healthy nutrients. Where and on what Bossie grazes appears to make a big difference in heart-healthiness of cheeses made […]
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes: Coffee and Caffeine Appear Protective
Most studies over the past decade have painted tea as a therapeutic beverage and coffee as its dastardly counterpart–a brew that challenges weak hearts and joints. However, such black-and-white characterizations appear to have overstated coffee’s dark side. New data now indicate that drinking java–lots of it, and especially the caffeinated form–can curb type II diabetes. […]
