| Is Science Ruining the American Diet?
For any individual who has chosen medicine or health science as a career, the above question seems absurd. However, in his article "Unhappy Meals: Thirty years of nutritional science has made Americans sicker, fatter and less well nourished. A plea for a return to plain old food," Michael Pollan, a contributing writer to the New York Times and UC Berkeley professor argues that this is exactly what has happened in our country over the past three decades. On January 28, "The Age of Nutritionism: How scientists have ruined the way we eat" was the feature headline on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Inside, Pollan gives an in-depth, 12-page analysis of the trends in American eating habits and health policy. The story begins in 1977 when the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition issued the "Dietary Goals for the United States," recommending decreased consumption of red meat and dairy products, which had recently been linked to increased rates of heart disease.
High carb diet not linked to colon cancer
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating large amounts of carbohydrates does not appear to increase the risk of colon cancer in women, according to study findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. There is experimental evidence to suggest that abnormal sugar and carbohydrate metabolism plays a role in the development of colon cancer, Dr. Susanna C. Larsson, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues report. However, data to support this effect in humans are lacking. The researchers examined the amount of dietary carbohydrates, sugar metabolism and the risk of colon cancer in 61,433 women enrolled in the Swedish Mammography Cohort between 1987 and 1990. .
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