Posts Tagged: diet

UC ANR nutrition professor still eats the other white meat

Elena Conis of the Los Angeles Times "Nutrition Lab" was puzzled when pork, billed for years as "the other white meat," was lumped in with beef for a study that linked their high consumption to heart disease and death.

According to Conis' story, the pork industry adopted the white meat slogan after breeding leaner pigs in the 1970s. Scientists, however, generally consider "white" meat to be poultry and "red" meat to come from mammals because saturated fat is generally higher in mammal meat than in fowl.

"If this sounds really confusing, that's because it is," Conis quoted UC Davis nutrition professor Judy Stern. "Heck, I'm confused."

Authors of the new study, which was published in the March Archives of Internal Medicine, haven't nailed down the reason why a diet high in red and processed meats (including pork) was linked to a higher death risk, particularly from heart disease and cancer. They speculated that the association was due to high levels of saturated fat in meat generally, presence of cancer-causing compounds formed in meats cooked at high temperatures, or the fact that people who eat more meat may eat fewer fruits and vegetables, the article said.

Stern told the reporter that she'll still eat pork, but not every day. "Will this study change the way I eat pork? No," she was quoted.

The story also appeared on Newsday.com.

Swine.

'Low carbon diet' reduces food's footprint

Every Tuesday, students at the University of San Francisco are presented with "low carbon" diet choices in the school cafeteria, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News. Gone is cheese pizza and hamburgers. Such savory treats are being substituted with options that are equally delicious - like guacamole and cucumber relish - but are produced on farms that release less greenhouse gasses than dairies and livestock operations.

USF is one example of institutions looking at changing food consumption to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases floating into earth's atmosphere. According to the article, the United Nations reported in a 2006 publication, "Livestock's Long Shadow," that the livestock sector is responsible for 37 percent of human-caused methane release, which is 23 times more potent a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. Livestock emit 65 percent of all human-caused nitrous oxide, which is nearly 300 times the potency of carbon dioxide.

Reporter Suzanna Bohen called UC Davis food systems analyst Gail Feenstra to comment on information from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The association's spokeswoman said that critics of beef production's ecosystem effect fail to factor in the environmentally beneficial role of grazing cattle. That includes pastureland absorbing carbon dioxide as it regrows after grazing.

"That's debatable," the article paraphased Feenstra. She is embarking on a project to measure greenhouse gases linked to all aspects of producing agricultural products in California, including feed, fertilizer, energy, transportation and numerous other facets.

Perhaps if cattle were grazing only on unfertilized grasslands, they might provide a net carbon benefit, "however, the proportion of cattle raised in this manner is extremely small," Feenstra was quoted.

Put that dropped pacifier back in baby's mouth?

A comment by UC Davis professor of medicine, Dr. M. Eric Gershwin, will probably give many moms the shivers. In a CNN story today, he says that if your child's pacifier falls on the floor, put it right back in his or her mouth.

OK, that's really hard to do, but it does draw attention to his point:  The human immune system will offer a child better protection in the future if it is exposed to germs and allergens at a young age.

In the story, written by Elizabeth Landau, Gershwin called the immune system "a complicated, multiorgan, chemical and genetic nightmare" that evolved about 250,000 years ago and is unlikely to improve just by eating certain foods.

The CNN story originated at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, being held this this week in Chicago. The article opened with futuristic musings about diets personalized for individual health profiles, saying that blanket dietary recommendations are missing the mark.

In his AAAS presentation, UC Davis food chemist Bruce German said food manufacturers' profits depend on lowering the cost of production and making their products cheaper.

"No one's getting healthy in this model," he was quoted. "It's clear we have to move toward a consumer-driven food supply."

In a consumer-driven food world, he said, the industry would focus on improving all aspects of the consumer's health. People would receive dietary recommendations based on a very specific individualized health assessment, taking into account age, sex and medical history.

A question not addressed in the story: Even if people know exactly what they should be eating, will they be willing to give up fried chicken, donuts, french fries and ice cream?

Baby with balloons.

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