New from the National Academies Press: Caffeine in Food and Dietary Supplements: Examining Safety

From the NAP: Caffeine in Food and Dietary Supplements is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine in August 2013 to review the available science on safe levels of caffeine consumption in foods, beverages, and dietary supplements and to identify data gaps.  Scientists with expertise in food safety, nutrition, pharmacology, psychology, …

Sugar-sweetened beverages playbook

One of the 4 legal tools discussed in the current issue of the CDC's Public Health Law News, is a Sugar-sweetened beverages playbook from ChangeLab.  The playbook offers a sequence of ten strategies—from public education campaigns to restrictions on the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages—communities and states can use to reduce consumption of SSBs. Find more …

Unpacking the FDA’s new Trans fat ban

Ten University of Michigan School of Public Health graduate students are once again blogging at Mind the Science Gap.  Here's a recent post on a ruling by the Food & Drug Adminstration on trans fats. Enjoy--& comment!

The Grocery Gap: Unequal Access to Healthy Foods in Southeast Michigan

Food insecurity is very high in parts of Southeast Michigan. This has led some to describe parts of the region as "food deserts." But is this term appropriate? The Institute for Research on Women & Gender is sponsoring a talk by Dorceta Taylor, professor of environmental sociology in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, that will …

Mold toxins tied to AIDS epidemic

From the New York Times: Aflatoxins — poisons produced by fungi that grow on moldy peanuts and corn — may be worsening Africa’s AIDS epidemic by helping suppress the immune systems of newly infected people, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published recently in …

New dietary supplement label database

From the National Institutes of Health: Researchers, health care providers, and consumers can now investigate the ingredients listed on the labels of about 18,000 (and growing) dietary supplements. The Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) is available free of charge. It is hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the result of collaboration …

Does your health insurance company support your local farmer?

From our friends at Mind the Science Gap, a new post today on farming, CSA'a and insurance companies (yes, you read that right): Unlikely Heroes in the U.S. Food System. As always, read, enjoy, and comment!

Two years after the tsunami in Japan, fear and mistrust of food and government

From the New York Times, an Op-Doc, 'In Japan, a Portrait of Mistrust': Two years after a huge earthquake, giant tsunami and nuclear meltdown ravaged parts of Japan, life has only seemingly returned to normal. Authorities say that outside the evacuation zone in Fukushima, there is at most a very low amount of radioactive contamination …

Vitamin D fraud: Lack of truth in labeling

Our friends at Mind the Science Gap, the blog written by School of Public Health students, recently published an interesting post on vitamin D supplements:  http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2013/03/14/vitamin-d-fraud-lack-of-truth-in-labeling/. As always, read, enjoy, and comment!

A bumpy road to a soda ban

From the New York Times Well blog: Some of the country’s leading public health experts called Monday’s judicial ruling against New York’s limits on the sale of large sugary drinks a predictable setback in what has become a national campaign against obesity, the country’s newest health epidemic. Many public health experts support the effort by …