Nutrition News and Research

Smart Guide examines foreign hormones in foods

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:18:25 -0400

A sustainable food, trade and ag group has released a guide examining the prevalence of foreign hormones in the food system – and the risks such hormones pose to human health.

The online document documents where hormones enter the food system, including through: growth promoters given to food animals: pesticides in food production; food packaging; and in industrial contaminants that accumulate throughout the food chain.

Ag fertilizers, processed foods causing risks to “nitrosamine generation”

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:53:07 -0400

New research links higher exposure to fertilizer and processed foods with increased deaths associated with insulin-resistant diseases.

The prevalence rates of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes have increased exponentially over the past several decades and show no sign of plateau. Other diseases including HIV-AIDS, cerebrovascular disease, and leukemia did not exhibit those trends.

Organic nutritional benefits clear in detailed French report

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:24:24 -0400

Organic food showed distinctive advantages in a report from the French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA). Results from its exhaustive and critical evaluation of the nutritional and sanitary quality of organic food were published in the July edition of the Journal of Agronomy for Sustainable Development.

Tim LaSalle on Huffington Post - Organic Agriculture Beats Biotech at its Own Game

tim — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:56:36 -0400

Organic Agriculture Beats Biotech at its Own Game

BOOK REVIEW: GO—A Culinary Community

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:55:01 -0400

Cookbook from the Canadian Plains ties food to people and place.

By Megan Michler

Organic food still best choice, when all evidence weighed

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:23:03 -0400

Solid data that show distinctions between organic and non-organic food increasingly affirm organic health benefits, Rodale Institute CEO Tim LaSalle wrote in the Huffington Post.

Reviews of existing older research that dismiss this evidence can't undo the deepening understanding of how the nutritional benefits of organic food translate into human health benefits relative to non-organic food consumption. LaSalle points to carefully designed new research that will provide even stronger validation for why the health of organic production systems translates into better food.

Transparent research demanded on GM crop health impacts

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:20:46 -0400

A French professor of molecular biology, in the news in India due to a Supreme Court challenge to a new GM crop, says much greater transparency is needed to judge the safety of this technology.

London study on organic nutrition challenged

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:05:55 -0400

The leading organic farming and food group in the UK dismisses the sweeping conclusion of a recent research review that concluded there was no significant nutritional difference between organic and non-organically grown food.

A Soil Association spokesman explained that some of the most significant comparative research was excluded by the review’s technical protocol requirements. Further, instances of organic nutritional superiority that the researches did find and list in their review of 162 studies were termed insignificant for public health benefit.

Study shows pesticide cocktail has adverse effect on male reproductive organs

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:51:40 -0400

Danish researchers, who conducted a study investigating the effects of mixtures of several pesticides on the sex organs of male rats, found disturbing evidence of impact on the formation of sexual organs. They noted that the chemicals—including phthalate (di(2-ethylhexyl) or DEHP), which is commonly used in products such as IV bags, carpets and wallpaper—caused reproductive deformities.

Children under 7 more vulnerable to pesticides

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:50:56 -0400

A new study in Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that children are more vulnerable to the toxicity of pesticides than adults, and for a longer period of time than previously believed. Children have significantly lower levels of paraoxonase, an enzyme that is crucial in protecting the body against the harms of certain pesticides.