Stanford Study - Organic Produce Reduces Exposure to Pesticides

News Release - Environmental Working Group 
Organic Produce Reduces Exposure to Pesticides, Research Confirms
Stanford Univ. Study Also Finds Organic Meat Has Fewer Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
August 31, 2012

Environmental Working Group : "Consumers can markedly reduce their intake of pesticide residues and their exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria by choosing organic produce and meat, according to researchers at Stanford University who reviewed a massive body of scientific studies on the much-debated issue. The Stanford team analyzed more than 230 field studies and 17 human studies conducted in the United States and Europe to compare pesticide residues, antibiotic resistance and vitamin and nutrient levels in organic and conventionally produced foods. The study, published Monday, September 3, 2012 is available online at the website of The Annals of Internal Medicine (abstract only)...Based on its review of the available research, the Stanford team also concluded that conventionally raised meat harbors more antibiotic resistant bacteria. It found that consumers of non-organic chicken or pork are 33 percent more likely to ingest three or more strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those who eat organic meat."

Food Orders Placed Online Are More Fattening, Complicated

Jie Jenny Zou, The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2012
 
A new study suggests that consumers feel less inhibited while on the Internet, making for orders that are more complex and calorie-laden.

Ryan McDevitt, assistant professor of economics and management at the University of Rochester’s Simon Graduate School of Business, examined the North Carolina pizza chain of 160,000 orders over a four-year period with price and offerings remaining the same. When it came to web orders, customers exercised more choice, sometimes quadrupling their bacon or piling on toppings.

As a result, a pizza ordered online was about 15% more complicated and contained 6% more calories compared to orders placed on the phone or in person. The study also found that while the company’s move to the web didn’t result in more new customers, it increased how much existing customers spent by 4% — largely due to the cost of more toppings.

Economists have attributed the “long tail,” or varied sales distribution, of Internet companies like Amazon to larger inventories and search functions, which provide customers with more choices and allow them to find obscure items.

Mr. McDevitt expects similar customization to occur with online ordering regardless of product type and argued customers are better off on the Internet because they are more able to meet their product needs. Aside from the excessive calories, of course.

“They have the same choices as before, but they’re removing the social transaction costs,” said Mr. McDevitt. “From my own personal experience, I feel more comfortable ordering something online than at the counter.”

He mentioned how customers ordering at Starbucks might be less inclined to make elaborate drink orders as they peek over their shoulder at the line of people behind them, or how women have taken to reading racy content like “Fifty Shades of Grey” on e-readers, which provide anonymity.

The study also suggests other reasons for complex orders — namely that the Internet makes it easier for consumers to choose by giving them access to a full menu as opposed to someone who might call and order something more typical like a plain pepperoni pizza.

Virtual World Takes on Childhood Obesity

A startup blends activity tracking with online incentives in hopes of getting kids into shape. 

Mya Frazier, Technology Review, MIT, May 16, 2012

Malica Astin, 11, never paid much attention to how much physical activity she got. But one day she played basketball while wearing a small activity tracker called a Zamzee on her waist. Later, she plugged it into a computer's USB port and uploaded the data captured by the device's accelerometers. Unlike a FitBit, a popular pedometer geared to adults, Malica's Zamzee didn't tell her how many steps she took or calories she burned. Instead, it gave her points for the movements she made. 

Even months later, she recalls the details of that first windfall: 758 points. And why not? The points are a currency that she can spend in the virtual world of Zamzee.com, where she created an avatar and outfitted it with braces, a necklace, and a hula skirt. 

Malica has since earned 3,612 "Zamz," and could eventually save enough to get real items like an iPod Nano (16,000 Zamz) or Wii console (18,000 Zamz). "At first, I didn't know what it was all about," she says. "Then I really started liking it."

Malica's experience illustrates the goals of Zamzee, a startup that is testing the notion that the addictiveness of games can be harnessed to solve a seemingly intractable social ill—in this case, childhood obesity. Rather than focusing on weight loss or diet, Zamzee hopes to reward movement of any kind in children 11 to 14, the ages when, according to research, physical activity drops precipitously. 

Zamzee is a for-profit venture started by Hope Lab, the nonprofit foundation begun by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam. (Hope Lab has also created the Re-Mission video game to increase medication compliance among kids with cancer.) Although Zamzee formally launches this fall, it has been in pilot programs in schools and community centers in Atlanta, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Malica is one of 20 middle-school girls who has been trying Zamzee at a Boys & Girls Club in Atlanta. It's a daunting proving ground. Georgia ranks second in the nation for childhood obesity, and 52 percent of middle-school students fail to meet the CDC's recommendations for daily activity. The situation is so dire that Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, a system of pediatric centers, recently launched a hard-edged ad campaign aimed at overweight children.

In contrast, Zamzee is about carrots rather than sticks. Parents put money into an account to fund the rewards that their children can try to earn with their Zamz (though some donors, such as the Mayo Clinic, are providing funding for poor families during the pilot tests).  

Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, the author of Welcome to Your Child's Brain, praises Zamzee's focus on physical activity instead of weight. But she cautions that a substantial body of research has found that intrinsic motivation outlasts extrinsic rewards: "There's this funny tendency to lose the focus on why you enjoyed something in the first place," Aamodt says.     

With that in mind, Zamzee's developers have been testing multiple methods for motivating children. Steve Cole, a biomedical scientist at UCLA who heads research and development for Hope Lab, says Zamzee has found that combining virtual and monetary rewards can be successful.

Even so, not all Zamzee users are as motivated as Malica. Emani Welch, 13, an Atlanta seventh-grader, isn't racking up enough points for rewards. She's yet to create an avatar or even log on to Zamzee.com. "I just sit still most of the time because there's not much to do," she says. "I go play tennis every now and then."

Copyright Technology Review 2012.

A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity

Claudia Dreifus, The New York Times, May 15, 2012

Carson C. Chow deploys mathematics to solve the everyday problems of real life. As an investigator at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, he tries to figure out why 1 in 3 Americans are overweight. 

We spoke at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where Dr. Chow, 49, gave a presentation on “Illuminating the Obesity Epidemic With Mathematics,” and then later by telephone; a condensed and edited version of the interviews follows. 

You are an M.I.T.-trained mathematician and physicist. How did you come to work on obesity?

 

In 2004, while on the faculty of the math department at the University of Pittsburgh, I married. My wife is a Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist, and she would not move. So I began looking for work in the Beltway area. Through the grapevine, I heard that the N.I.D.D.K., a branch of the National Institutes of Health, was building up its mathematics laboratory to study obesity. At the time, I knew almost nothing of obesity. 

I didn’t even know what a calorie was. I quickly read every scientific paper I could get my hands on. 

I could see the facts on the epidemic were quite astounding. Between 1975 and 2005, the average weight of Americans had increased by about 20 pounds. Since the 1970s, the national obesity rate had jumped from around 20 percent to over 30 percent. 

The interesting question posed to me when I was hired was, “Why is this happening?” 

Why would mathematics have the answer?

 

Because to do this experimentally would take years. You could find out much more quickly if you did the math. 

Now, prior to my coming on staff, the institute had hired a mathematical physiologist, Kevin Hall. Kevin developed a model that could predict how your body composition changed in response to what you ate. He created a math model of a human being and then plugged in all the variables — height, weight, food intake, exercise. The model could predict what a person will weigh, given their body size and what they take in. 

However, the model was complicated: hundreds of equations. Kevin and I began working together to boil it down to one simple equation. That’s what applied mathematicians do. We make things simple. Once we had it, the slimmed-down equation proved to be a useful platform for answering a host of questions. 

What new information did your equation render?

 

That the conventional wisdom of 3,500 calories less is what it takes to lose a pound of weight is wrong. The body changes as you lose. Interestingly, we also found that the fatter you get, the easier it is to gain weight. An extra 10 calories a day puts more weight onto an obese person than on a thinner one. 

Also, there’s a time constant that’s an important factor in weight loss. That’s because if you reduce your caloric intake, after a while, your body reaches equilibrium. It actually takes about three years for a dieter to reach their new “steady state.” Our model predicts that if you eat 100 calories fewer a day, in three years you will, on average, lose 10 pounds — if you don’t cheat. 

Another finding: Huge variations in your daily food intake will not cause variations in weight, as long as your average food intake over a year is about the same. This is because a person’s body will respond slowly to the food intake. 

Did you ever solve the question posed to you when you were first hired — what caused the obesity epidemic?

 

We think so. And it’s something very simple, very obvious, something that few want to hear: The epidemic was caused by the overproduction of food in the United States. 

Beginning in the 1970s, there was a change in national agricultural policy. Instead of the government paying farmers not to engage in full production, as was the practice, they were encouraged to grow as much food as they could. At the same time, technological changes and the “green revolution” made our farms much more productive. The price of food plummeted, while the number of calories available to the average American grew by about 1,000 a day. 

Well, what do people do when there is extra food around? They eat it! This, of course, is a tremendously controversial idea. However, the model shows that increase in food more than explains the increase in weight.

In the 1950s, when I was growing up, people rarely ate out. Today, Americans dine out — with these large restaurant portions and oil-saturated foods — about five times a week.

Right. Society has changed a lot. With such a huge food supply, food marketing got better and restaurants got cheaper. The low cost of food fueled the growth of the fast-food industry. If food were expensive, you couldn’t have fast food. 

People think that the epidemic has to be caused by genetics or that physical activity has gone down. Yet levels of physical activity have not really changed in the past 30 years. As for the genetic argument, yes, there are people who are genetically disposed to obesity, but if they live in societies where there isn’t a lot of food, they don’t get obese. For them, and for us, it’s supply that’s the issue.

Interestingly, we saw that Americans are wasting food at a progressively increasing rate. If Americans were to eat all the food that’s available, we’d be even more obese. 

Any practical advice from your number crunching?

One of the things the numbers have shown us is that weight change, up or down, takes a very, very long time. All diets work. But the reaction time is really slow: on the order of a year.

People don’t wait long enough to see what they are going to stabilize at. So if you drop weight and return to your old eating habits, the time it takes to crawl back to your old weight is something like three years. To help people understand this better, we’ve posted an interactive version of our model at bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov. People can plug in their information and learn how much they’ll need to reduce their intake and increase their activity to lose. It will also give them a rough sense of how much time it will take to reach the goal. Applied mathematics in action! 

What can Americans do to stem the obesity epidemic?

One thing I have concluded, and this is just a personal view, is that we should stop marketing food to children. I think childhood obesity is a major problem. And when you’re obese, it’s not like we can suddenly cut your food off and you’ll go back to not being obese. You’ve been programmed to eat more. It’s a hardship to eat less. Michelle Obama’s initiative is helpful. And childhood obesity rates seem to be stabilizing in the developed world, at least. The obesity epidemic may have peaked because of the recession. It’s made food more expensive. 

You said earlier that nobody wants to hear your message. Why?

I think the food industry doesn’t want to know it. And ordinary people don’t particularly want to hear this, either. It’s so easy for someone to go out and eat 6,000 calories a day. There’s no magic bullet on this. You simply have to cut calories and be vigilant for the rest of your life.

Public Health Experts Make Recommendations For Obesity Prevention

John Reichard, CQ HealthBeat Editor, Reuters, May 11, 2012

An optimist might say America is about to turn the corner in its battle against obesity. It isn't because things are getting markedly better. It's that there may be a growing realization that the obesity epidemic could easily get worse. With that recognition, action may follow.

An intense round of meetings and briefings on obesity in recent days and new reports appeared to heighten that awareness. The experts involved said that nothing less than a culture change is required to counter the health threat. And every level of society must be involved.

The message to Congress: Do not shirk your role in addressing the many influences that foster obesity. Schools, employers, health care providers, insurers, families and individuals cannot afford to do so either.

Anchoring a week's worth of events was the May 8 release of a 478-page report by the Institute of Medicine. It predicted that people will act when they know the facts. "Once awareness of the catastrophic nature of the obesity problem is understood and felt and the need for diverse and numerous leaders is recognized, all will share the moment of saying to themselves, 'I can do something about this, and I want to play a role.' "

Americans have slowly but surely modified their behavior to cope with other public health threats. They have significantly reduced their use of tobacco, for example. But the Institute of Medicine report's prediction may be based more on faith than reality, judging from the difficulty of turning back the tide of obesity.

A Bad Neighborhood

The institute report described the powerful influences that promote obesity by talking about "environments" relating to physical activity, food, beverages and messages. It says in effect that Americans live in a bad neighborhood when it comes to avoiding obesity. Adults and children have ready access to cheap, high-calorie foods that come in super-sized portions and are heavily promoted on TV. Physical education classes, once the norm in schools, are no longer offered or have been curtailed. Children play computer games by the hour. In inner cities, where obesity rates are highest, the "built environment" conspires against activity with limited access to exercise areas and high concentrations of fast-food outlets.

"People have a very tough time achieving healthy weights when inactive lifestyles are the norm and inexpensive high-calorie foods and drinks are readily available 24 hours a day," said Dan Glickman, who chaired the institute panel that produced the report. Glickman, a former Kansas congressman, was Agriculture secretary in the Bill Clinton administration.

Without successful anti-obesity efforts, the percentage of obese adults will reach 42 percent in 2030, up from 33 percent now, according to projections released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a "Weight of the Nation" conference the agency sponsored in Washington May 7 to 9. That will add $550 billion over the next two decades to the nation's health care tab. Treating illnesses related to people being obese or overweight costs $190 billion a year, the institute report said. Two-thirds of adults and a third of children are either obese or overweight.

Experts worry especially about the young. Type 2 "adult-onset" diabetes brought on by obesity and inactivity now accounts for half of new diabetes cases in adolescents, compared with 3 percent a few decades ago.

"We are learning that type 2 diabetes is a more aggressive disease in youth than in adults and progresses more rapidly," said Philip Zeitler, a researcher at Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colo. The longer a person has type 2, the greater the chances that blindness, stroke, heart and kidney failure will occur.

Widespread media coverage of these and other alarming findings adds to the drumbeat of press reports in recent years on obesity. The institute suggests that awareness eventually will reach a point where the "bold, widespread and sustained action" called for by the study begins to occur. "Funding for implementation is likely to become available as the seriousness of the obesity threat is understood," the report says.

To help coordinate action the report offers dozens of recommendations to reach five goals: make schools the heart of anti-obesity efforts; make physical activity a daily part of everyone's lives; offer healthy foods and beverages in all settings; change food marketing; and involve employers, doctors and hospitals in the effort. Congress, it says, should consider taxing soft drinks. And within two years it should legislate marketing standards if industry does not act voluntarily before then to promote healthier nutrition.

But the going will be slow before any tipping point is reached. A major finding calls for 60 minutes a day of physical education through grade 12 — tough to achieve given tight budgets and school testing demands. Industry blocked a soda tax during the health law debate and has resisted federal marketing guidelines. Lawmakers are raiding the multibillion dollar health law fund created to prevent obesity and other costly conditions.

That's "not a very good priority choice when health care is the fastest growing part of our national budget and the whole focus is on debt reduction," Glickman said.

Source: CQ Online News

Same-day coverage of the people and events shaping health care policy from Washington.

© 2012 CQ Roll Call All Rights Reserved.

Health Affairs: Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For Consumers

Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For Consumers

The federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, emphasized the need for Americans to consume more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium, and to get fewer calories from saturated fat and added sugar. We examined the economic impact of meeting these guidelines for adults in King County, Washington. We found that increasing consumption of potassium—the most expensive of the four recommended nutrients—would add $380 per year to the average consumer’s food costs. Meanwhile, each time consumers obtained 1 percent more of their daily calories from saturated fat and added sugar, their food costs significantly declined. These findings suggest that improving the American diet will require additional guidance for consumers, especially those with little budget flexibility, and new policies to increase the availability and reduce the cost of healthful foods.

Choose MyPlate replaces Food pyramid

USDA Unveils New, Simple Tips to Stay Healthy, Active and Fit

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on June 2, 2011 at 11:46 AM

Today was an exciting day at USDA as I was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and Surgeon General  Dr. Regina Benjamin to unveil USDA’s new food icon, MyPlate. The icon is a departure from MyPyramid and serves as a quick, simple reminder to all consumers, built off of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for all Americans.

We all know that what we eat matters – MyPlate offers a visual reminder to make healthy food choices when you choose your next meal. MyPlate can help prioritize food choices by reminding us to make half of our plate fruits and vegetables and shows us the other important food groups for a well-balanced meal: whole grains, lean proteins, and low fat dairy.

 Visit www.ChooseMyPlate.gov for practical information to individuals, health professionals, nutrition educators, and the food industry to help consumers build healthier diets with resources and tools for dietary assessment, nutrition education, and other user-friendly nutrition information.

Today’s announcement was a monumental step forward for consumers and partners, as well. It was a pleasure to be joined by leaders from the Food Marketing Institute, United Fresh Produce Association, Mission Readiness representative Lieutenant General Norman R. Seip (Ret.) and Chef Marcus Samuelson, all committed to making a positive change in our nation’s health.

MyPlate is only the first step in a multi-year effort to raise awareness and educate consumers of every age. We’ll continue working closely with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative and other stakeholders to deliver tips and information necessary to adopt healthier eating habits balanced with physical activity.

Head over to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov for information, tools, “how-to” materials about healthy eating. While you’re there, check out the interactive tools like the customizable Daily Food Plan orFood Tracker.

We hope that MyPlate becomes your plate in the months and years ahead. We’d love to see what’s on your plate so snap a photo of your next meal and share with us on Twitter using the hashtag #MyPlate.

If you missed the event today, check out this video announcing the new food icon, MyPlate:
http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/06/02/usda-unveils-new-simple-tips-to-stay-healthy-active-and-fit/

Next Wednesday in NYC: Food and Internet Week

Internet Week 2011: FOOD 2.0
Hosted by: Food+Tech Connect  |  Grubster  |  Pretty Project Collective

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
10:30 AM – 7:30 PM
Wix Lounge | 10 W 18th St | 2nd Fl | New York, NY

FOOD 2.0 is a day-long series of panels that brings together professionals interested in the future of food for discussions about how technology is shaping the way we interact with and produce food. The panels will explore food data sharing and standards, the future of food reviewing, open source food, and the social kitchen. Speaker bios available here.

Event Schedule

10:30 – 11:30: Food & Menu Data: Building A Standard Interchange Format
Moderated by Niles Brooks, Tech Co-Founder, Clean Plates

REGISTER
Panelists:
David Bloom- CEO, Ordr.in
Lev Steshenko- Co-founder, Campusfood.com and Allmenus.com
Ryan Scott- Chief Marketing Officer, SeamlessWeb
Data is what ensures we are all talking about the same restaurant, farm or same dish. It’s also what drives policy decisions, helps businesses plan, and if displayed in a meaningful manner, data can help change consumer behavior. The panelists will discuss their current projects using restaurant, menu, ingredient, food source, and nutritional data. We’ll also discuss any barriers they currently face in collecting and sharing data in hopes of building a standard interchange called “Clean Format.”

___________________________________

12:00 – 1:00 The Future of Food Reviewing
Moderated by Ryan Charles, Founder Consmr, former Zagat Mobile Director
REGISTER
Panelists:
Amy Cao- Head of Social Media, Foodspotting
Eunice Chou- Founder, Flavorize
Nick Fauchald- Editor-in-Chief, Tasting Table
Colleen Curtis- Director of East Coast Marketing, Yelp
Lea Marino- Community Manager, Bizzy
Over the last decade there have been huge shifts in how users discover and research great food. The days are numbered for critics and experts, but is the future of food really the present day user generated sources? How do location, friends, palate and automated recommendations play a role? Our panelists will explore the hypothesis that we’re rapidly moving towards external signals and factors to determine our next dinner. Join executives from Foodspotting, Yelp, Tasting Table, Where, and Flavorize in exploring this topic

___________________________________

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch sponsored by Yum Yum

___________________________________

2:30 – 3:30: Open Source Food
Moderated by Danielle Gould, Founder, Food+Tech Connect
REGISTER
Panelists:
Britta Riley- Founder & CEO, Windowfarms
Natalie Jeremijenko-  Director of xDesign Environmental Health Clinic & Associate Professor of Visual Art, New York University
Devin Balkind- Director, Sarapis Foundation
Stowe Boyd- Social Philosopher & Connectivist, Work Media
Rising food costs, obesity and diabetes, and food borne illness have all increased demand for healthier, local and more transparent food. This session will explore how the ideas of open source food are energizing a new generation of food tech entrepreneurs and researchers to build a more transparent food chain based on new ways to use and share data in the private and public sectors and to change the fundamentals of the business of food and agriculture. The panel will look at what exactly open source food is, different approaches being explored, and why it’s important.

___________________________________

4:00 – 5:00 : The Social Kitchen: How Social Networks & the Internet Have Hacked The Home Cooking Experience
Moderated by Mike Lee, Founder, Studiofeast
REGISTER
Panelists:
Amanda Hesser- Co-Founder, Food52
Sarah Maine- Co-Founder, RecipeRelay
Michael Lavalle- CEO, Gojee
Will Turnage- Mobile App Creator, Ratio & Bread Baking Basics
The kitchen has always been a hub of social activity in the home. For generations, cooking techniques and recipes have been passed on through real life interactions within the four, physical walls of a residential kitchen. Over the past decade, social networks & the internet have broken these walls down and home cooks are now exposed to an infinitely larger data set of ideas and inspiration to empower their cooking pursuits in the home. Hear from our panelists how this onslaught of data has benefited the home cook, changed the public discourse on cooking and foodie-ism, and created challenges in filtering and vetting all of this information.

___________________________________

5:00 – 7:30: Happy hour sponsored by Wix Lounge & Singha
Special molecular gastronomy demonstration by Mike Lee of Studiofeast.

http://www.foodandtechconnect.com/site/2011/06/02/internet-week-2011-food-2-0/

--------------------------------------------------
Stefaan G. Verhulst
Chief of Research
Markle Foundation
10 Rockefeller Plaza, Floor 16
New York, NY 10020-1903

Tel. 212 713 7630
http://www.markle.org/

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

A New Look at Where Our Food Dollars Go

http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/June11/DataFeature/

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
From the report:

The ERS marketing bill has been a popular statistical series for food market observers interested in knowing the costs of getting food from farm to table. The marketing bill series identified the costs of processing and marketing the raw farm commodities contained in a typical dollar’s worth of U.S.-produced food and the share going to farmers. However, it is no longer possible to use the longstanding method for estimating the annual marketing bill because many of the data sources have been discontinued and the estimation procedures do not fully represent today’s food economy.

In February 2011, ERS introduced a new data product called the food dollar series that uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual input-output tables to provide a more complete accounting of U.S. food spending at both grocery stores and eating places. The new food dollar estimates are composed of three primary series that slice the same food dollar differently to provide a variety of perspectives. The new series spans 1993 to 2008 and will be updated annually.

A comparison of related statistics between the new and older series highlights some important changes in ERS’s assessment of what food dollars pay for:

·       The marketing bill series, like the previous series of that name, identifies the distribution of the food dollar between farm and marketing shares. Like the old series, the new marketing bill series exhibits an increasing trend in marketing costs in most years since 1993. However, the new measure of these costs averaged nearly 4 cents higher per food dollar each year from 1993 to 2006 than estimates of the old marketing bill series. New data and better estimation methods explain this difference.
·       The industry group series identifies the value added, or cost contributions, to the food dollar by 10 distinct segments of the food supply chain. In this series, energy industry cost contributions to each food dollar went from about 4 cents in 1998 to 6.8 cents in 2008 and reflect energy use throughout the food system—from farm inputs to the grocery store or eating place. The old marketing bill series, which only reported energy costs from fuel and electric utilities of processing, wholesaling, retailing, and foodservice companies, indicated these costs were steady at roughly 3.5 cents in 1998-2006. Other energy costs in the old series were embedded in other cost categories. For example, fuel costs for transporting food and ingredients were part of transportation costs.

Tomorrow: NEW food pyramid

Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Dinner Plate

By WILLIAM NEUMAN  NY Times  5/28/2011

Whatever you do, don’t call it a pie chart.

The Obama administration is about to ditch the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.

The circular plate, which will be unveiled Thursday, is meant to give consumers a fast, easily grasped reminder of the basics of a healthy diet. It consists of four colored sections, for fruits, vegetables, grains and protein, according to several people who have been briefed on the change. Beside the plate is a smaller circle for dairy, suggesting a glass of low-fat milk or perhaps a yogurt cup.

Few nutritionists will mourn the passing of the pyramid, which, while instantly recognized by millions of American school kids, parents and consumers, was derided by nutritionists as too confusing and deeply flawed because it did not distinguish clearly between healthy foods like whole grains and fish and less healthy choices like white bread and bacon. A version of the pyramid currently appearing on cereal boxes, frozen dinners and other foods has been so streamlined and stripped of information that many people have no idea what it represents.
“It’s going to be hard not to do better than the current pyramid, which basically conveys no useful information,” said Walter C. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Willett said he had not seen the new logo.

The new symbol was designed to underscore a central mantra of the federal government’s healthy eating push: make half your plate fruits and vegetables. And it is expected to be a crucial element of the administration’s crusade against obesity, which is being led by the first lady, Michelle Obama.

“We need to get consumers’ attention,” said Robert C. Post, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. He would not discuss details of the icon in advance of the official unveiling. But he said it was meant to be a “visual cue” that would prompt “consumers to say, ‘I need to be a little more concerned about what I choose to build a healthy day’s diet.’ ”

Some who have seen the logo compared it with a pie chart, though dessert is hardly the association that the administration would like to conjure up. Others likened it to a pizza cut into slices (equally unpalatable for officials). One person said it called to mind a painting by the artist Mark Rothko, who was known for canvases with blocks of color. Those who had seen it would speak only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by the administration to discuss it.

Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who said he had heard descriptions of the new plate, suggested that if the symbol succeeded in getting people to eat significantly more fruits and vegetables, that alone would be an achievement.
“The reality is that very few of us eat like what has been suggested” in government guidelines for healthy eating, Dr. Kessler said. “There’s a world of difference between what’s being served and what’s on that plate.”

He called the plate a major improvement over the pyramid. “It conveys the message simply in a way that we all can understand,” he said.

The plate symbol is meant to help educate consumers about the government’s latest dietary guidelines, which were released in January.

Dr. Post said the U.S.D.A. had spent about $2 million to develop and promote the logo, including conducting research and focus groups and creating a Web site. Some of that money will also be used for the first year of a campaign to publicize the image. He said the agency would use the plate to get across several basic nutritional messages, including urging consumers to eat smaller portions, switch to low-fat or fat-free milk and drink water instead of sugary drinks.

The food pyramid has a long and tangled history. Its original version showed a hierarchy of foods, with those that made up the largest portions of a recommended diet, like grains, fruit and vegetables, closest to the wide base. Foods that were to be eaten in smaller quantities, like dairy and meat, were closer to the pyramid’s tapering top.

But the pyramid’s original release was held back over complaints from the meat and dairy industry that their products were being stigmatized. It was released with minor changes in 1992.
A revised pyramid was released in 2005. Called MyPyramid, it turned the old hierarchy on its side, with vertical brightly colored strips standing in for the different food groups. It also showed a stick figure running up the side to emphasize the need for exercise.

But the new pyramid was widely viewed as hard to understand. The Obama administration began talking about getting rid of it as early as last summer. At that time, a group of public health experts, nutritionists, food industry representatives and design professionals were invited to a meeting in Washington where they were asked to discuss possible alternative symbols. One option was a plate.

When several participants at that meeting said it would be better to create an improved version of the already familiar pyramid, an administration official rejected that idea, telling the group, “We can’t go back,” according to one person who attended the meeting. The person, who requested anonymity because the deliberations were intended to be confidential, said it was clear that the “marching orders were obviously to come up with something new.”
That “something new” will be plated up on Thursday.

Food Environment Atlas

http://ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/

Objectives of the Atlas:

Food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. Research is beginning to document the complexity of these interactions, but more is needed to identify causal relationships and effective policy interventions.

The objectives of the Atlas are:

To assemble statistics on food environment indicators to stimulate research on the determinants of food choices and diet quality

To provide a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so

What information is included in the Atlas?

The Atlas assembles statistics on three broad categories of food environment factors:

Food Choices—Indicators of the community's access to and acquisition of healthy, affordable food, such as: access and proximity to a grocery store; number of  food stores and restaurants; expenditures on fast foods; food and nutrition assistance program participation; quantities of foods eaten; food prices; food taxes; and availability of local foods

Health and Well-Being—Indicators of the community’s success in maintaining healthy diets, such as: food insecurity; diabetes and obesity rates; and physical activity levels

Community Characteristics—Indicators of community characteristics that might influence the food environment, such as: demographic composition; income and poverty; population loss; metro-nonmetro status; natural amenities; and recreation and fitness centers

The Atlas currently includes 168 indicators of the food environment. The year and geographic level of the indicators vary to better accommodate data from a variety of sources. Some data are from the last Census of Population in 2000 while others are as recent as 2009. Some are at the county level while others are at the State or regional level. The most recent county-level data are used whenever possible.

See Documentation for complete list of indicators, definitions and data sources.

Making Food Fit for the Web

April 25, 2011
1.      We need an open standard for tracking ingredients, recipes and nutritional data across the web.
2.      There are several companies trying to deliver a better online food experience via weight management programs, online recipe databases or meal-planning services, but none of them can communicate with each other.
3.      There are plenty of companies that would hate to see an open standard develop, but will the government, Google, a startup or a large retailer make it happen?

I love to eat. I love data. And I love the web. But other than snarfing some chips while I surf the web, it’s difficult to combine my loves in a way that takes advantage of the power of our mobile devices, web services and the plethora of data available online. Food is the next frontier for mobile, big data and web services to change our lives, but in order to make that happen, we need open standards, or any kind of standards for identifying ingredients, importing recipes and tracking nutritional data.

Too Many Cooks in Different Kitchens
Recently three different services have come together to make realize how crappy the online food experience is and what it could be. In San Francisco, I played with the Meal Snap application by Daily Burn on a friend’s phone and thought it was the coolest thing. You can use the app to snap a picture of your food and the app returns an estimate of how many calories it has. It’s simple, easy and fun in a way that counting calories isn’t.

The following week, my husband gave me a Fitbit (see disclosure) for my birthday. The device tracks my activity, sleep and offers an estimate for calories burned. For $99, it’s like a web-enabled pedometer. But it could be so much more. The site allows me to track my food intake and calories consumed using a decently-sized database, but it’s such a pain to go to the site and enter what I ate. What if I could snap a picture of my food and send it over? After all, I’m not a hardcore Fitbit user trying to use it to meet any real fitness goal; I’m just intrigued by data.

The final piece of this puzzle is the Food on the Table service (I said people should meet them during SXSW) which tracks grocery deals, allows me to submit my recipes, then delivers a meal plan that helps me use recipes to incorporate food that’s on sale. From there, I can generate my shopping list. I think it’s an extraordinarily disruptive service because it takes the act of applying data and technology to disrupt an industry, much like TiVo aggregated data on a variety of shows and channels, added a hard drive and changed the way people watch TV.

We Need a Catalyst
To make a TiVo-like revolution possible, computers need to recognize food and ingredients via some kind of open data standard and we need a catalyst to force grocery stores, packaged goods companies and other food suppliers to get on board. Food on the Table is trying to build this out in part. It has added recipe-reading technology that allows me to submit my own recipes to the site and hopes to make that process scalable through building a food database and recipe standard (right now it takes a few days and involves manual labor).

But Google has started too, with its Google Recipe View product launched in February, which allows people to find recipes from around the web via ingredients. But a deeper understanding is necessary to build services and apps that can really help make meals easier. For example, we need a way for the computers to recognize the words chicken legs in all its variations — drumstick, dark mean chicken, etc.– and then have the entire industry, from Tyson to Safeway to Gourmet magazine using such an open standard.
But as Steve Sanderson, VP product development at Food on the Table, says, “These are not technically savvy industries.” Plus some such as Gourmet are actively hostile to the idea of sharing such data because it upends its business model. Grocery stores and food producers don’t have an incentive to make an effort unless it sells more of their products or somehow increases efficiencies to boosts already-small margins.
Well, if we can’t get Walmart involved, what about the government? A fitness-crazy friend was gung-ho about the idea of open food and nutritional standards to track calories, ingredients and recipes. He suggested the FDA or the U.S. Department of Agriculture could get involved. The USDA already is responsible for tracking food and setting its nutritional content for a national database, and Sanderson says some companies already use that information in their products.

What if They Can’t Handle the Heat?
Daily Burn CEO Andy Smith took an opposite approach, and said I was pretty crazy for wanting to make it easy to build out a way to translate food for the web. “Food is really complex, and in a sense it feels very difficult to do something like you said at a really useful level,” Smith said. “The market is still fragmented and people want to own it, and everybody wants to own their piece.”
He said perhaps if Google or some other entity really wanted to drive adoption it might work, but he thinks anything that open is still several years, if not a decade, away. First, we have to move through a proprietary stage whereby platform players try to keep users locked into their devices or web services by holding their data captive as a means to get people to pay for subscriptions.

At the end of chatting with everyone, I’m leery of the government getting involved (but not terribly worried that it will), incredibly worried that Smith’s cynicism is the most accurate picture, and desperately hoping a company like Google or Food on the Table can help drive consumers to demand open data for their food, their recipes and their other health data. The market is still huge. After all, everybody has to eat, and most of us wouldn’t mind a technical assist in our meal planning and calorie tracking.

Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.
http://gigaom.com/2011/04/25/making-food-fit-for-the-web/?utm_source=Food%2BTech+Connect+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0a5ead0a0b-Food_Tech_Bytes_4_28_11_5_1_114_25_2011&utm_medium=email

Social Media Week: The Future of Health, Food, and Tech

Posted by Ellie Cachette on February 8th, 2011 10:28 AM


Where is the future of food and tech headed?  What do we need to measure so that we can make positive changes? Many apps track fitness like FitBit and calories like DailyBurn but what is the core of major health change and how is tech going to answer the question? This week in NYC for Social Media Week 2011 HealthTechFood explored the future of health and why measuring health with technology devices is going to save humanity. Each speaker touched on different angles of how to implement massive health changes across local and international.  All agreed that mobile and apps could move the future but each speaker had a different area they felt was important to review.

MEASURING
Steven K. Dean (@sgdean) founder of  The Quantified Self talked about the measurement as the future.  He believes that metrics can shape the future but technology will also need to be careful to not hook us too much, “If we can measure it, we can improve it” but he continued “we need to make sure to avoid SMS overload.”

AWARENESS
Slowfood, Jerusha Klemperer (@slowfoodusa) theorized that evaluating food systems and processes were important.  She mentioned understanding the difference between Foodshed (the difference between where food is produced and consumed) and also food waste.  In modern times she said its important to “understand where food is coming from” and to not be naive about how processed food comes to life.

MOBILE
Why Mobile? Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, (@healthythinker) an economist and member of Health Populi talked about health and not being afraid to use programs that people have access to. She talked about mobile apps to help people date and have safe sex like Cupid Me and how 1 in 4 americans don’t have  landlines. Despite economic seperations most people have access to mobile so she argued the focus of health int he future should be mobile.

TECHNOLOGY
TED lecturer and inventor of the K1 syringe, Marc Koska stated some grave statistics.  While funding flows to Africa and lesser developed countries he broke down the future of health relief very simply: vaccines and shots are killing humanity. He argues that 20MM people a year are injected with HIV from the lack of sanitation and 62% of injections cause some illnesses.  He doesn’t tweet but he believes that making large health change will require clean technologies that don’t require massive societal change just product change.

Introducing PreventObesity.net

PreventObesity.net is a groundbreaking new tool sponsored by RWJF to help build the movement to reverse childhood obesity and connect leaders in the movement with one another.

• See and add yourself to a map of the movement.
• Add the map as a widget on your site.
• Read a blog analysis that helps organizers target the right blogs when they have stories or reports to share.
• Get cell phone tools to engage people in advocacy efforts through text messaging.

HHS announces the nation's new health promotion and disease prevention agenda

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 2, 2010

Contact: OASH Press Office (202) 205-0143

HHS announces the nation’s new health promotion and disease prevention agenda

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled Healthy People 2020, the nation’s new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention, and “myHealthyPeople,” a new challenge for technology application developers. 

For the past 30 years, Healthy People has been committed to improving the quality of our Nation’s health by producing a framework for public health prevention priorities and actions.

“The launch of Healthy People 2020 comes at a critical time,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  “Our challenge and opportunity is to avoid preventable diseases from occurring in the first place.”

Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending.  Many of the risk factors that contribute to the development of these diseases are preventable.

“Too many people are not reaching their full potential for health because of preventable conditions,” said Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H.  “Healthy People is the nation’s roadmap and compass for better health, providing our society a vision for improving both the quantity and quality of life for all Americans.”

The Healthy People initiative is grounded in the principle that setting national objectives and monitoring progress can motivate action, and indeed, in just the last decade, preliminary analyses indicate that the country has either progressed toward or met 71 percent of its Healthy People targets. 

Healthy People 2020 is the product of an extensive stakeholder feedback process that is unparalleled in government and health. It integrates input from public health and prevention experts, a wide range of federal, state and local government officials, a consortium of more than 2,000 organizations, and perhaps most importantly, the public. More than 8,000 comments were considered in drafting a comprehensive set of Healthy People 2020 objectives. Based on this input, a number of new topic areas are included in the new initiative, including:

• Adolescent Health
• Blood Disorders and Blood Safety
• Dementias, including Alzheimer’s Disease
• Early and Middle Childhood
• Genomics
• Global Health
• Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being
• Healthcare-Associated Infections
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health
• Older Adults
• Preparedness
• Sleep Health
• Social Determinants of Health

Healthy People is also issuing a special challenge to encourage developers to create easy-to-use applications for professionals who are working with the new national health objectives and state- and community-level health data.

“This milestone in disease prevention and health promotion creates an opportunity to leverage information technology to make Healthy People come alive for all Americans in their communities and workplaces,” said Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. “The ‘myHealthyPeople’ apps challenge will help spur innovative approaches to helping communities track their progress using Healthy People objectives and targets as well as develop an agenda for health improvement.”

HHS is also launching a newly redesigned Healthy People Web site that allows users to tailor information to their needs and explore evidence-based resources for implementation. 

The Web site is located at:  www.healthypeople.gov. 

For more information about myHealthyPeople, go to www.challenge.gov/

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last revised: December 02, 2010

Feds’ Transgenic-Salmon Review Ignores Big Picture

Feds’ Transgenic-Salmon Review Ignores Big Picture

Wired Science Wired.com by Brandon Keim, Nov 18, 2010

When the Food and Drug Administration announces the fate of the AquAdvantage salmon, the first genetically modified (GM) animal ever considered for commercial consumption, they may have considered only a fraction of their decision’s consequences.

So far the FDA has focused on whether or not the salmon are safe to eat or might escape and breed with wild fish. They haven’t yet considered how GM salmon could affect, for better or worse, public dietary habits or the fallout of a boom in fish farming.

“The way they’re defining safety is overly narrow,” said Martin Smith, an environmental policy analyst at Duke University and co-author of a Nov. 18 commentary in the journal Science, of the FDA’s approval process.

The modified fish is produced by AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based company which, for more than a decade, has asked the FDA to approve their proprietary breed: an Atlantic salmon with growth-stimulating genes spliced into its DNA from Chinook salmon and ocean pout.

On a tissue-for-tissue basis, the FDA has deemed AquAdvantage flesh to be little different from farmed or “natural” salmon, though critics argue the agency has relied on possibly skewed data provided by the company itself.

Critics also share concern about AquAdvantage salmon escaping and interbreeding with wild salmon, potentially eradicating a majestic portion of the living world’s heritage. The GM fish would, however, be sterile and — at least in the beginning — grown inland, far away from any coastline.

(As far as interbreeding goes, well-regulated GM salmon would seem less threatening than farmed salmon, which are already spreading disease and genetic homogeneity among endangered wild populations.)

But that only covers a portion of the issues raised by GM salmon. Just as the FDA was blamed for being short-sighted in its initial approvals of GM crops, by failing to anticipate the inevitable spread beyond farms of modified genes and proteins, they may again be avoiding the larger and long-term ramifications of a biotechnological innovation.

Smith and his colleagues aren’t taking a side. They just want the FDA to do the job right.

“We’re arguing that they need to think about what this innovation is doing,” Smith said. “This is not just about GM salmon. This is about the next transgenic animal for human consumption, and the next after that.”

One unconsidered possibility may actually be of great benefit to the public. Should AquAdvantage salmon prove commercially viable, growing faster on less food than their farmed counterparts, total salmon production could rise dramatically and drive down their price to consumers.

As a result, people might eat more salmon, ostensibly using it to replace less-healthy meats in their diet. Given the apparent benefits of eating omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish, that could be a boon to public health.

“GM salmon could put fresh salmon in reach as a protein source for low-income households susceptible to conditions linked to poor nutrition,” Smith’s team wrote in Science.

GM salmon farming could, however, become so widespread that demand for feed becomes unsustainable.

Like other high-level predators, salmon subsist on large amounts of protein. It already takes about three pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon, and salmon farming consumes a full 40 percent of global fish oil production.

Many ocean fish populations are already over-fished, with base-of-the-food-web populations of small fish — once thought inexhaustible — collapsing under demand for fish meal. A boom in salmon farming could make the problem worse.

“Nobody can predict the future, but you can look at studies of demand for farmed salmon, and come up with some reasonable scenarios,” Smith said. “More importantly, you’d set up a precedent for how to think about these innovations.”

The FDA’s public comment period ends this month, and a decision on AquaAdvantage salmon could come before the year’s end.

Other genetically modified animals in the food industry’s pipeline include pigs and cows.