- Author: Marissa Palin
I spent last week at the Childhood Obesity Conference in Long Beach representing UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. I had heard that obesity was an epidemic. I had heard it's an issue that needs to be tackled. But I hadn't ever heard the extent of it before.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years. Adolescent obesity has tripled. In 2010, more than one-third of children and adolescents were obese. Last week, the American Medical Association went as far as to
- Author: Ann Brody Guy
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Moss is best known for coining the term “pink slime,” a reference to a meat additive that, thanks to Moss’s reporting, had a particularly bad PR day in 2009, when his high gross-out factor exposé was published in the New York Times. Products containing the cringe-inducing substance were subsequently banished from many grocery stores and schools.
In his most recent book, Salt, Sugar, Fat, Moss shined daylight on the happier sounding, but no less alarming phrase “bliss point,” a food industry term for the exact combination of those titular ingredients that stimulates our brain’s pleasure center and makes us — and our kids...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Will berries taste like colored Styrofoam if water supplies for farmers are cut? Or will a reduction in irrigation only intensify their flavor?
To find out, farm advisors around the state are comparing strawberries, blueberries and blackberries grown under four irrigation regimes – one that reflects the normal practice, one half the normal amount of water, one 75 percent of normal, and one that is 25 percent more than normal. The studies are being conducted in Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, San Diego and Fresno counties.
“We’re doing this because of the water issue in California,” said Richard Molinar, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno County....
- Author: Diane Nelson
It’s not just our imagination: We really do eat differently when we’re stressed. Nutritionists at UC Davis and the Western Human Nutrition Research Center are shedding light on the important link between stress, our brain and body weight, discoveries that could help society fight obesity and improve our individual efforts to lose weight and keep it off.
“It is becoming clear that stress degrades our ability to make healthy food choices for long-term well-being,” said Kevin Laugero, a research nutritionist with the Western Human Nutrition Research Center and an adjunct professor with the UC Davis Department of Nutrition....
- Author: Ann King Filmer
- Contributor: Pat Bailey
Olive oil is repeatedly in the news these days, but the stories often raise as many questions as they anwer:
- It’s touted as the “healthy oil." Does that hold true for cooking and eating raw?
- It adds a range of flavors to food. Just what is EVOO and should you pay more for it?
- You can choose “grassy” or “peppery” olive oil. But what does that mean?
- How can you tell if olive oils are adulterated with lesser-grade oils, or oils from entirely different plants?
A new survey, spearheaded by Dr. Selina Wang at the Olive Center at UC Davis, shows that consumers need more information about olive oil in...