1) Will Mercury in Fish Make You “Mad as a Hatter”? (source: Nutrition Data)

A new study published in Hypertension suggests that mercury in consumed fish may raise blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease.  Readers of this blog may recall that I advocate fish consumption for its heart-healthy benefits. The news was covered by HealthDay (MedlinePlus), who quotes the lead investigator, Dr. Eric DeWailly, saying, ” For every 10 percent increase in blood mercury level, there is a 0.2 millimeter increase in blood pressure.  Even if you apply that to an entire population, that is a small effect.”

2) Chewing Gum Can Reduce Calorie Intake, Increase Energy Expenditure (source: Medical News Today)

Kathleen Melanson, URI associate professor of nutrition and food sciences, compared gum chewing to non-gum chewing in healthy adult volunteers who came to her lab for two standardized tests in random order. When study subjects chewed gum for a total of one hour in the morning (three 20-minute gum-chewing sessions), they consumed 67 fewer calories at lunch and did not compensate by eating more later in the day.

3) Health Care Costs For Employees With Cardiac Risk Factors Reduced By Web-Based Nutrition Program (source: Medical News Today)

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) have shown that an employer-sponsored, internet-based diet and exercise program shows promise as a low-cost benefit to lower healthcare costs for those at higher risk for above-average costs and healthcare utilization such as cardiac, hyperlipidemia, hypertension or diabetes patients. These findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Original Article

(source: Medical News Today)

While the drought and starvation in the Horn of Africa are “ghastly to be sure,” when “you see children on TV with distended bellies keening over their dying parents … do them a favour. Sit on your hands,” Sam Kiley, a former Africa bureau chief with the London Times, writes in a newspaper opinion piece. “African aid organisations have been in the grip of an hysterical number inflation game since the hideous images of the Ethiopian famine were brought to our screens 25 years ago … Aid organisations and the media have inflated the scale of subsequent horror, regardless of the truth,” Kiley writes.

Original Article

(source: Environmental Protection Agency)

The Recovery Through Retrofit Report builds on investments made in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand the home energy efficiency and retrofit market. With the Energy Star program, EPA brings to the table one of the federal government’s most successful programs. The Energy Star program will play a central role in promoting energy efficiency to consumers under the implementation of the Recovery Through Retrofit recommendations. In particular, Home Performance with Energy Star offers homeowners a whole-house, building science-based approach to improving the energy efficiency of their homes.

Issue Brief

(source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

This issue brief provides a brief overview of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, including a discussion of how the program would be financed and whom it is intended to reach.

The paper was released as part of a Kaiser briefing about the act, a component of two leading health reform bills that would establish a national voluntary insurance program to allow for voluntary pre-financing of long-term care through payroll deductions and then provide a cash benefit to purchase services.

1) Guardian Examines How Uganda’s Drought, Food Shortages Affect HIV-Positive People (source: Medical News Today)

The Guardian examines how “famine and acute food shortages” in Uganda could affect people living with HIV/AIDS. “The situation is beginning to undermine efforts to fight the virus in the north and east of Uganda, the areas most affected by the drought,” according to the Guardian. “The National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA) in Uganda, which promotes positive living for women with the virus, has warned that HIV-positive patients in eastern Uganda are abandoning their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment ‘in droves’ because of a lack of food.

2) Too much saturated fat during pregnancy sets kids up for obesity? Let’s not jump to conclusions (source: Nutrition Data)

Here’s what the study found: If you feed a pregnant mouse a high-fat diet, the mouse’s offspring are more susceptible to fatty liver disease. (Access the journal article here.)

Here’s how it was reported to the media: Women eating a diet high in saturated fat during pregnancy increase the risk of fatty liver disease in their children. (Read the press release here.)

3) Rules to Eat By (source: New York Times)

Deciding what to eat, indeed deciding what qualifies as food, is not easy in [a supermarket] environment. When Froot Loops can earn a Smart Choices check mark, a new industrywide label that indicates a product’s supposed healthfulness, we know we can’t rely on the marketers, with their dubious health claims, or for that matter on the academic nutritionists who collaborate on such labeling schemes.