Food for Thought (Apr. 15 – Apr. 21)

Food and Health

…the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) is releasing a book, Eating Planet, highlighting the challenges facing today's food and agricultural system, as well as the myriad of benefits that reform could bring. As Earth Day approaches, it is important to appreciate the links between technology, culture, and agriculture, and how they can help alleviate hunger and poverty. Eating Planet will be downloadable for free on Earth Day, April 22, 2012 from the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition's website (http://www.barillacfn.com). http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/20/4429888/the-barilla-center-for-food-nutrition.html

A new paper which reviews the evidence from sleep restriction studies reveals that inadequate sleep is linked to obesity. The research, published in a special issue of the The American Journal of Human Biology, explores how lack of sleep can impact appetite regulation, impair glucose metabolism and increase blood pressure.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120417080350.htm

Food Safety

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has less than two weeks to either stand with the 90 percent of his constituents who support a mandatory labeling bill for genetically engineered foods -- or cave in to Monsanto's threat to sue the state if legislators pass H.722.  http://www.naturalnews.com/035635_Vermont_Monsanto_GMO_labeling.html

The bottom line is — if you eat fresh lettuce, you're taking a small risk. An additional washing won't change the risk much, one way or the other.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/20/151034145/rewash-that-pre-washed-bag-of-lettuce-dont-bother-probably#more

Food Assistance

Forty-five million people in the United States received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits - more commonly known as food stamps, a 70 percent increase from 2007. The Congressional Budget Office declared this week that the number of people receiving the benefits would continue growing until 2014.  http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=45831

Despite its proven success, SNAP remains a consistent target at budget-cutting time. This latest assault by the House committee means two million people would be cut off from food stamps completely and millions more would have reduced benefits. Hundreds of thousands of children would lose free school meals on top of their SNAP benefits. These additional changes on top of already enacted cuts will increase child and family hunger.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/snap-cutting-what-works_b_1441829.html