Congress Stalls Genetically Engineered Salmon

The federal spending bill is preventing the Food and Drug Administration to approve marketing genetically-modified Atlantic salmon. Hopefully because of the incredible backlash that this GM salmon provoked. Congress is now requiring the FDA to create a labeling system for the fish. The genetically-engineered salmon have a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and a gene from the ocean pout, according to a report in the Washington Post. The fish, which some are calling “Frankenfish,” grows twice as fast, making it ready for consumption in 18 months instead of three years. Commercial fishermen, activists and lawmakers speculate that the consumption of the genetically-engineered fish could cause harm both to the environment and to the people who consume them.

Bringing Out the Chef in Children

Lynn Fredericks, the creator of FamilyCook Productions, started this organization to bring people of all ages together around delicious, affordable fresh food while positively impacting their health and well-being. Since the late ’90s, FamilyCook programs and curricula have reached over 100,000 families across the US. FamilyCook provides evidence-based programs/ curricula and the training to embed nutrition education through hands-on cooking in schools, community organizations, on farms and other settings around the country. What began as a personal mission grew into a nonprofit organization, now 20 years old, that teaches schoolchildren and their families the delights that can ensue from preparing affordable, fresh and tasty foods that benefit their health and well-being.

The Diet of the 1980s May Be Why Americans Are So Fat Today

Jeremiah Stamler, a cardiologist, was referring to the rash of heart attacks and heart disease that was killing American men in disconcerting numbers in the 1950s and ’60s. The massive change in lifestyle Stamler called for was to cut the amount of fat and cholesterol in the American diet. Nearly 40 years after the first federal dietary recommendations—and as a new, revised set of guidelines is set to be released—that change is looking less than successful. Many of Stamler’s contemporaries see the low-fat, low-cholesterol diet craze that eventually gripped the country as one of the primary causes of today’s obesity epidemic.