#Sell-By Labels Send Edible U s. Food to the Dump (Op-Ed) Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural resources Defense Council (NRDC.
No one eats forty percent of the food produced in the United states. That's nearly half of America's food wasted not just on plates but in refrigerators and pantries in grocery stores and on farms.
Much of it perfectly good edible food worth $165 billion annually gets tossed in the trash instead of feeding someone who's hungry.
and why food gets wasted in America from farm to store to table. One of the more surprising reasons as she explains in a report released today by NRDC
which food is date labeled. Those best-by sell-by and use-by dates that you see on food have nothing to do with food safety.
They're set by manufacturers without federal oversight and most often relate to what manufacturers feel is peak quality.
The date label on food does not tell you if your food is safe to eat.
Confusion over dates according to a survey by the Food Marketing Institute leads 9 out of 10 Americans to needlessly throw away food.
For the average family of four this could translate to several hundred dollars'worth of food being thrown away every year
and in all likelihood more money spent purchasing the same food again simply because of a misleading date stamp.
A senseless waste when most Americans are keeping a close eye on household budgets and when one in six Americans lacks a secure supply of food.
You might think the U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the federal agency responsible for food safety would be overseeing food-expiration dates.
It does not. The FDA in its own words leaves date labels on food except for infant formula to the discretion of the manufacturer.
The U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) which oversees meat poultry and some egg products also says date labels are voluntary.
It does call for specific wording on a label if a manufacturer chooses to use one such as packing date sell-by date
others like New york have no requirements for food dates at all. As a result of this hodgepodge of rules the date on your milk might be a use-by date a sell-by date or a date with no explanation.
The ineffective misleading date-labeling system in the United states is contributing to the costly problem of wasted food in this country.
Wasting food is a systemic problem that's a serious drain on the U s. economy and natural resources.
and packaging food that never gets eaten. Food is the single biggest item in our landfills a source of the powerful global warming pollutant methane.
Overhauling the U s. date-labeling system is a straightforward concrete solution that will reduce food waste.
The nation needs a reliable coherent and uniform food-dating system that provides useful guidance to consumers.
Manufacturers and retailers should have coded their own system for sharing information relevant to food display
Take a picture of the date label on your food and upload it to NRDC's collection at Fixfooddates. com
and also receive expert tips on food storage as well more information on sorting out the date-label mess.
and make our food system safer and more sustainable. Lehner's most recent Op-Ed was Running the A c?
because it's abundant in our food supply. Because of this many people are getting enough.
Whole natural foods are the best source so if your diet consists of mostly processed foods you may not be getting enough of this vital nutrient (and many others as well).
People with certain gastrointestinal or renal disorders are more likely to be deficient in magnesium as are alcoholics and the elderly.
Here are a few more amazingly rich food sources of magnesium: Halibut. Just three ounces of this cooked fish accounts for about 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance for magnesium.
In 2009 the Food and Drug Administration banned the manufacture and distribution of flavored cigarettes such as chocolate and cherry over concerns that the products encouraged youth smoking.
In 2012 19 percent of new food and beverage products launched in the United states were labeled as being high-protein according to Mintel a market research company.
A 2009 to 2010 U s. food survey found that on average women eat about 70 grams of protein per day
but you're better off getting the nutrient from real food some experts say I never recommend protein supplements said Katherine Tallmadge the author of Diet Simple (Lifeline Press 2011).
People need to be eating real food. High-protein bars and shakes are often high in calories
when you eat real food she added. Good sources of protein include meat poultry fish legumes (such as dry beans and peas) eggs milk and tofu according to the CDC.
For people who want a nonperishable food to take on hikes or outings Tallmadge recommends nuts and dried fruit.
Heather Mangieri a nutrition consultant and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics agreed that ideally people should get protein from food.
It's best to get protein from real food rather than from bars shakes or other supplements.
The market for olive oil has grown rapidly in recent years as food scientists have touted the product's health benefits.
and fish and these foods are eaten in moderation said Heather Mangieri a nutrition consultant and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
That's because these foods actually contain alpha linolenic-acid acid a compound our bodies convert to omega-3 fatty acids.
and damage 9 percent to 20 percent of stored food crops. Farmers primarily use chemical insecticides to control pests
But today because we are exposed to a variety of fattening foods especially at restaurants buffets
 As long as a volume of food is high people can feel full with fewer calories.
In one study researchers varied the amount of water in a food eaten as a first course
 A large food volume caused by water incorporated into the food as in vegetables fruits
Second visually seeing a large volume of food can increase your ability to feel satisfied by it.
Water in food keeps calories low and has the largest influence on how much you eat.
 Simply the amount of food you are served will affect how full you feel and how much you eat.
When people are served varying amounts of the same food a smaller portion satisfies as much as a large one.
if it's a tasty high calorie food. So when served larger portions we adjust our level of satiety to accommodate greater calorie intakes.
 Control the food that is put in front of you. When good-tasting lower-calorie foods or portion-controlled meals are available we will eat those and feel just as satisfied.
If that saves 300 calories at lunch and dinner that's 60 pounds lost in one year.
 4. Food pushers.  To be fair food pushers as I call them aren't necessarily bad people.
Your mom your spouse your friends they just want to please you. They are people who think they have your best interests at heart.
My clients and I have tried various tactics to deal with food pushers through the years most of them utter failures.
And I learned that the worst thing you can say to a food pusher isâ No thanks I'm on a diet orâ Thanks
First your excuse is giving the food pusher a double signal that you really want it
Second it might also sound insulting implying that the food isn't good enough for your refined tastes.
All of these things challenge the food pusher to seduce you. Bottom line: Â I finally began to make headway when
Save at least 200 calories per day by saying No thank you to your food pusher and lose 20 pounds in one year!
There are many ideas for handling food pushers inâ Diet Simple. Â 5. Show control with sweets.
Humans have been eating naturally sweet foods such as breast milk and fruit for millions of years.
Such foods contain life-sustaining nutrients and a love for those foods helped keep us alive.
Also during evolution an attraction to scarce calorie-dense foods such as sweets and fats improved our chances for survival.
Bottom line: Â Because we have a natural urge for sweets include something naturally sweet at every meal such as fruit (remember the importance of variety?.
My clients who try this find their cravings for high-calorie super-sweet foods reduce.
Using creative decorations almost any food can be turned into a spider witch or vampire. For frozen treats such as mini ice pops or frozen yogurt using a cooler filled with dry ice can give a spooky smoky effect enticing kids to choose the treats.
and nonfood items in your basket is especially important and considerate for kids with food allergies Sheth said.
#Some Weight Loss Supplements Contain Amphetamine-Like Compound Some popular weight-loss supplements contain a synthetic compound that is chemically similar to the drug amphetamine according to a new study by researchers at the Food and Drug Administration.
#Southern Diet May Increase Stroke Risk No matter where you live eating lots of Southern-style foods may increase your risk of stroke a new study suggests.
The study which surveyed people all over the United states about their eating habits found that people who dined on Southern-style foods about six times a week were 41 percent more likely to have a stroke over a four-year-period than people who ate Southern-style
foods just once a month. Examples of Southern-style foods included fried chicken fried fish fried potatoes bacon ham liver and gizzards and sugar-sweetened beverages such as sweet tea.
By contrast people in the study who ate a diet high in fruits vegetables legumes
about two-thirds of those who ate the most Southern-style foods lived in the Southeast.
African-americans are five times more likely to eat Southern-style foods than whites and they also have a higher risk of stroke.
Fried foods are high in fat and salt which can raise cholesterol levels and blood pressure respectively.
They also answered questions about the types of foods they ate. Health-care providers should make sure they ask their patients about the foods they commonly eat
and educate them about the importance of eating a healthy diet Judd said. Pass it on:
Eating lots of Southern-style cuisine including fried foods and sugar-sweetened beverages is linked to an increased risk of stroke.
Her food intake was stellar. She was even a little more physically active than usual. Not until we reviewed her food diary thoroughly did we discover the culprit was liquid calories
and they added up in a way that surprised her. In her case as is the case with many people that extra glass of wine
although such liquids count as calories the body doesn't detect them the same way as it would detect solid food.
When people eat calories in the form of solid food they naturally compensate by reducing the rest of their food intake.
and don't elicit compensatory dietary responses said Richard Mattes M p h R. D. a professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University.
versus a solid may generate different signals less time and involvement with food and reduced psychological satisfaction.
Some beverages cross over the line into being a food says Barbara Rolls professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State university.
The high protein levels in addition to cognitive beliefs about milk being a food may make it more satiating.
Also fluids with food in them such as soups are very satiating. But most caloric fluids Americans consume are not satiating.
Photos of Exotic Food However one true tale of a Pleistocene repast comes from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Paleontologist Dale Guthrie
Parents should know it takes time for children to acquire a taste for new foods
It can sometimes take a dozen tries before kids learn to like a new food the USDA says.
Learning to bee Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov became famous in the early 1900s for discovering that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell they associated with food.
He also found that he could get dogs to drool at a completely unrelated stimulus they'd never seen alongside food.
which they in turn associated with food. 10 Really Weird Animal Discoveries Dawson and her colleagues thought that bees might be taking a similar series of logical steps.
and processed foods and instead try to eat foods that ancient hunter-gatherers would have eaten before the agricultural revolution.
Those foods usually include fish wild game and poultry as well as fruits vegetables and eggs. Some on the diet also eat nuts.
Carb-conscious Many people (including people on the Paleo diet) now follow a gluten-free diet avoiding any foods that contain the protein gluten.
But like any occasion that involves families gathering to enjoy good food and each other's company accidents can happen.
And when people eat too quickly food can get lodged in their throats especially turkey
Food allergies also rear their ugly heads at the holidays. Patrick said he sees a lot of children in anaphylactic shock around Thanksgiving
because they have eaten foods prepared by others unfamiliar with their dietary restrictions. Anaphylactic shock is a severe allergic reaction that can be life threatening.
and recipes from early Thanksgivings provided to Livescience by food writer Cynthia Bertelsen who blogs at Gherkins & Tomatoes.
The food and water animals consume leave chemical signatures (biomarkers) in their tissues; however metabolism sometimes alters these signatures.
The amount of MESSENGER RNA that taste cells choose to make may be the missing link in explaining why some people with'moderate taster'genes still are extremely sensitive to bitterness in foods
and may ultimately lend insight into individual differences in food preferences and dietary choices the researchers said.
The Food and Drug Administration can't currently regulate electronic cigarettes because they don't technically contain tobacco
#The Foods, They Are a Changin':'Know What You're Eating You probably wouldn't be surprised too to hear that our food supply has changed drastically
since the 1950s but still the changes are not always obvious. For example an ear of corn sold today at the supermarket probably doesn't look much different from
There is no law that requires food to be labeled as GMO so to the naked eye it just looks the same old corn you grew up eating at every barbecue.
The foods they are a changin'.'So what can we do to protect our food supply from a profit-driven manufacturing processes?
Here are some tips: Healthy Bites appears on Myhealthnewsdaily on Wednesdays. Deborah Herlax Enos is certified a nutritionist
while agriculture and food gathering were a central part of daily life the Maya had sophisticated a economy capable of supporting specialists and a system of merchants and trade routes.
The family is surrounded by food drink dancers and snow-covered houses. Other mass-produced cards of the Victorian eraâ included more holiday images that would become familiar to Christmas revelers today:
but surely more research needs to be done on the subject. 2005 study in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology:
Printing food seems more like an idea based in Star trek rather than in the average home.
With everything from printed metal airplane wings to replacement organs on the horizon could printed food be next?
In some ways we have oeprinted food for decades. Think of making a sundae using a self-dispensing ice-cream machine.
Researchers at Cornell pioneered some of this work adapting an open source extrusion printer called the Fab@Home Lab to work with food in 2007.
Novelty food suppliers have become early adopters of similar technology. Various chocolate printers are on the market
Other 3d printing technologies have been investigated for use with food. In 2007 Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories introduced the Candyfab 4000 a DIY printer based on a modified selective laser sintering technique.
Beyond novelty printed food could provide serious medical benefits. The netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific research (TNO) announced they ll build printers to reassemble pureed food to look like the original think 3d printed broccoli florets from pureed broccoli.
TNO has targeted printers for nursing homes in order to help elderly people who have chewing and swallowing problems.
Beyond medical conditions TNO has proposed printing customised meals with varied levels of the basic food components like carbs protein and fat for everyone from seniors to athletes to expectant mothers.
And NASA sees 3d printed food as a revolutionary way to make personalised meals for astronauts.
They are funding development of a 3d printer that premixes basic food components before spraying the mix on baking tray.
Beyond providing cosmic delivery food would also be tailored for astronauts'daily activities. will printed food go beyond novelty value?
Should it replace other foods or supplement the nutritional value of existing foods? In this area one of the most interesting and perhaps controversial areas is the debate about printing meat.
Some suggest 3d printed meat could provide high quality protein for a growing global population without increasing stress on arable land
For vegetarians printed meat somewhat circumvents concerns about harmful or destructive use of animals for food.
Printed meat may result in a debate akin to that on GMO foods. Certainly the public will want to know
whether printed foods are safe for human consumption. Consumers will most likely demand adequate protections to ensure the development of printed foods does not limit their access to
or contaminate organic foods. It is reasonable to assume most will want to decide whether they eat oereal meat
Farming communities and those in agricultural food production will also want a voice about if when and how their industry will be transformed by industrialised printed meat.
Early identification or those affected and extensive engagement with the range of community concerns about printed foods is warranted.
While no specific printed food exploration exists yet similar forms of community engagement have been developed in Australia through the Science and Technology Engagement Pathways framework (STEP.
With no slow down in 3d printing developments there will certainly be new advances in printed food.
Whether the technology can truly move from the novelty sector will most likely depend on the ability to process a wider range of foods requiring influence from both the kitchen and from printer developers.
whether 3d printed food can integrate in the global supply chain particularly if printed meat can be made economically viable
However the benefits of 3d printed food could be monumental. Time will tell if the next fad will be the 3d printed diet.
Until then the community should be involved in the discussion of printed food. Dr. Robert Gorkin is a Strategic Development Officer at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES.
and the poisonous mercury is now slowly making its way toward the fruit and nut orchards and the rice fields of California s lush Central Valley America s food basket according to new research by a team
Mercury taint from the Gold Rush has been found in the food supply in the San francisco area
Two yearsâ ago scientists discovered that gold mining in the Amazon had contaminated already the food supply in the Madre de dios area of Peru in that case from burning off the mercury in the amalgam.
The pros and cons of GM food are not what s at issue here. For those interested in pros
#To Cut out Salt, Use a Knife To make food healthier don't just cut the salt.
(and healthier) foods taste like the saltier (less healthy) variety new research suggests. For instance cheese tastes saltier
This thing that we've ignored for so long the cutlery in fact does have an impact on the food we eat said study co-author Charles Spence a psychologist at the University of Oxford in the United kingdom. The findings could one day help scientists tweak utensils to help people eat healthier
for example by giving eaters the same salty sensation they get from processed foods but with reduced salt. 9 Snack foods:
The idea would be to use these cues to reduce the actual content of the unhealthy ingredients in a food by giving the psychological impression of saltiness
A growing body of research suggests that people's enjoyment of food is related to many factors beyond a meal's actual taste.
A 2011 study found that white plates make food seem tastier while another study found that hot chocolate tastes better in orange cups.
And other research has shown that everything from the price on a bottle of wine to the size of a bowl can affect people's experience of foods.
The yogurt eaters rated food eaten from a lighter spoon as denser more expensive and more enjoyable than yogurt eaten from heavy spoons.
But the findings could have implications for chefs food scientists and cutlery makers hoping to subtly enhance the eating experience.
The other food groups fruits and vegetables have minimal salt. The good news is that baby foods were relatively low in sodium.
Just one of the more than 600 baby meals and snacks tested contained more than 210 mg of sodium per serving.
and choose foods with the lowest sodium. When preparing meals parents should choose low-sodium ingredients Maalouf said.
You must eat the tomato as you need the whole food to receive the benefits!
Many studies have shown that lycopene-rich foods reduce the risk of prostate cancer but the mechanism behind the reduction was understood not well until now.
The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends that men take advantage of lycopene's cancer-preventing effects and fill tehir diets with foods such as tomatoes watermelon and guava.
#Top Foods Children Choke On For kids the food most likely to go down the wrong pipe
 Overall nearly 112000 children visited the emergency department for nonfatal choking related to food during the eight-year study about 12400 per year.
That means that about 15 percent of all child emergency room visits related to choking on food were due to hard candy.
 Other top foods that sent kids to the emergency room include the following: Other candy:
because they were choking on food were treated and released but about 10 percent needed to be hospitalized.
or seeds nuts or shells were more likely to require hospitalization than those who choked on other foods.
The average age of kids treated for nonlethal food choking was about 4. 5 years old
The researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio analyzed information from a national database of emergency-department visits focusing on choking visits involving food that did not result in death.
Young children may lack the teeth necessary to properly grind food they still may be learning how to chew
and they may have a high activity level which may make them more likely to choke on food the researchers said.
Foods that may pose a greater choking risk to children include those that are similar in shape to the child's airway (such as hot dogs) those that are difficult to chew (raw fruits
or lie down with food in their mouth the AAP says. Parents and caregivers should be familiar with techniques to rescue their children
The AAP also recommends that the Food and Drug Administration take action to label foods that may pose a choking risk to children.
The study is published today (July 29) in the journal Pediatrics. Follow Rachael Rettner@Rachaelrettner. Followlivescience@livescience Facebook & Google+.
The recent but long overdue decision by the U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban trans fats made
Foods that eliminated cholesterol would be safe to eat and would prevent heart disease. Educated homemakers like my mother rapidly accepted this advice.
When society vilified cholesterol we sent the message that consumption of foods that avoided fat
Vendors were touting cholesterol-free foods. Manufacturers believed they could make foods people enjoy healthier by replacing animal products with hydrogenated vegetable oils
thus avoiding the evil villain. The recent decision by the FDA and the 30 years of data demonstrating the damage of trans fats are clear evidence that the medical community's artificial efforts were not successful.
They eat foods that grow in the ground or lean meats and low-fat dairy products.
and vegetables not re-engineering processed foods. Instead of searching for another magic formula whose negative impact may not be known for years people need to remember the basics.
If your grandmother would not recognize it as food don't eat it. Roslin's most recent Op-Ed was The Sad Truth About Boy scouts and Childhood Obesity.
In fact omega-3s are so important to human health the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board recently set a minimum daily requirement for the first time.
when compared to Europeans who eat more calcium-containing foods said Bruce Watkins nutrition professor at Purdue University.
The U s. Food and Drug Administration recently approved omega-3s for infant formulas because of the overwhelming evidence that it improves cognition and visual functioning in children.
What isn't debated is that adult women need atleast1. 1 grams of omega-3s daily and adult men need 1. 6 grams according to the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board.
which is used in large doses in processed foods and fast foods. And no longer do our animals graze on high-omega-3 grasses but on grains instead.
It may be safer to stick with food sources and not supplements so you don't go overboard
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