News summary

Imposed veganism “is unethical”

A scientist in the US says putting children on a vegan diet is unethical and could harm their development. Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, says foods from animal sources have some nutrients not found anywhere else, and criticises parents who insist for ideological reasons that their children not eat any animal products. “There have been sufficient studies clearly showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded, possibly permanently,” she says. “There’s absolutely no question that it’s unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans.”
BBC News Online

Evolution, diet, and crooked teeth

Paleoanthropologists in the US say the evolution of the human diet could help to explain why so many children have crooked teeth. Fossil evidence shows human beings have evolved to eat well broken-down food, they say. “If we can’t get the foods we like, and we have to adapt quickly, we might be in a terrible mess because our teeth and jaws aren’t equipped to cope with anything very substantial,” according to Dr Bernard Wood, of George Washington University. It appears that the development over thousands of years of cooking and cutting up food has led our teeth and jaws to shrink, but the smaller jaw has to accommodate the same number of teeth.
BBC News Online

Food withdrawal goes on

At least 100 more products [in addition to 359 withdrawn last week] will be withdrawn from sale after their contamination with the illegal dye called Sudan 1. Dr Jon Bell, spokesman for the Food Standards Agency, said the organisation is liaising with manufacturers, retailers and local inspection teams to ensure contaminated products are removed from sale as quickly as possible. Sudan 1 is normally used as a colouring in solvents, oils, waxes, petrol, and shoe and floor polish. A full list of the products is available on the FSA website
BBC News Online

Milk “may be a cause of acne”

Milk, and skimmed milk in particular, may be a cause of acne in teenage girls, according to the findings of a new study. Dr Clement Adebamowo, of Harvard University, says, “The message is that milk is a biological fluid, the consumption of which may have effects on consumers beyond its nutrient contents.” His research revisits the hypothesis that certain foods may increase the risk of acne during the teenage years, and is based on an analysis of survey responses by 47,335 women involved in the ongoing US national Nurses Health Study II. Women who consumed two or more daily servings of skimmed milk were 44 per cent more likely than others to say that they had been diagnosed with severe acne during their teen years.
Reuters Health Online

Food labelling for restaurants?

Several US states are considering new legislation on the labelling of food in restaurants with nutrition information. Proponents of the proposed laws say such information would provide sorely needed information to those with health problems who need special diets, as well as allowing the general customer to make health-orientated selections. Daniel Hoffman, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Cook College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, says the regulations are especially important because people eat out more often than ever, and are getting fatter.
CNN Online

Compound blocks grehlin

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University say they have made progress in the search for new ways to reduce weight. They say trials in mice show that injections into the brain of an enzyme that blocks fatty acid synthase (FAS) result in reduced appetite. Lead researcher Daniel Lane says when a compound called C75 is used to block FAS, the amount of malonyl-CoA, increases, and that in turn suppresses some of the chemicals that increase appetite while increasing the levels of the chemicals that suppress appetite. In particular, he says his team found that C75 works by blocking the production of ghrelin, an appetite stimulant produced in the brain and the stomach.
HealthScout Meat in diet “is beneficial to children”

The addition of small amounts of meat to the diet of poor children in developing countries improves both their health and their performance in mental tests, according to research presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In one study, scientists said, as little as 2 ounces (60g) of meat daily were found to supply all of children’s daily needs for vitamin B12, 68 per cent of their zinc requirement, and 26 per cent of their daily iron requirement. Dr Howarth Bouis, of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC, says research shows that children who do not get enough iron, zinc and other nutrients have a weakened immune system, and show impairment in growth and cognitive development.
Reuters Health Online