No level in formula known to be safe

The Food and Drug Administration has issued interim safety guidelines for melamine exposure in food and reports that it isn’t known if any level of the chemical is safe for infants, given that they’d likely be getting a continual supply from tainted formula and the fact that they have immature organs, more likely to be damaged by smaller amounts of the chemical. They say adults would be OK eating foods with up to 2.5 parts per million of melamine in as much as half of their diet…

China says it will clean up milk problems

Speaking of melamine in food, China says that its new rules and oversight will clean up the dairy industry there. But those who are paying attention will remember the government promised a similar crackdown on product safety after the rash of lead-infused toys and melamine-tainted pet food. Meanwhile more countries are finding more evidence of melamine in more foods, with South Korea pulling Snickers and Kit-Kat bars that were made in China…

32 sickened by frozen chicken dinners

In other food safety news, the Department of Agriculture announced that 32 people in 12 states were sickened by salmonella from improperly reheating precooked frozen chicken dinners. Apparently people thought the pre-browned chicken was fully cooked so they didn’t follow the package directions to cook the meals in the oven rather than the microwave. Health experts say it’s always a good idea to cook frozen chicken in the oven, as it needs to reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill food-borne bacteria…

Study says women avoid Pill because of weight gain fear

A very small but in-depth Scottish study found that some women avoid taking birth control because they’re afraid they will gain weight when they take it or that it will be harder to get pregnant once they stop. Just 23 percent of British women in 2005 and 2006 used the Pill, with another 10 percent using a long-term birth control device such as an implant. Researchers wanted to know why the numbers were so low and found that doctors should emphasize impacts on weight, skin and fertility when talking to women about birth control…

Books with healthy messages may help girls lose weight

Reading books with storylines that include a character losing weight may help obese tweens control their weight, but the results weren’t dramatic. Thirty-one girls between the ages of 9 and 13 were asked to read a book called Lake Rescue, which includes an overweight character who goes to camp and learns about appropriate levels of activity. The girls who read the book lost a little bit of weight over the next sixth months, more than girls who read a book that didn’t have anything to do with weight loss…

990-pound man gets diet help from Uribe

Finally, the world’s fattest man knows a thing or two about weight loss, and he’s now helping another morbidly obese Mexican to lose weight. Jose Luis Garza pleaded for help on television and got a call from Manuel Uribe, the Guinness record holder for world’s fattest man, who has lost 550 pounds. He sent his fiancé, Claudia Solis, to visit Garza, bearing fruit and protein supplements, and said he would get the man a special bed like he has. Garza says he’s always been heavy and eaten a lot of junk food, but he really started gaining after his parents died within 13 days of each other.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 and is filed under Celebrities and politicians, Childhood obesity, Food dangers, Food safety, Foreign stories (non-U.S.), Kids and families, Nibbles: diet news shorts, Obesity research and studies. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.