Saying nuts to Nutricate? The apparent success and consumer popularity of municipal laws in New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia and elsewhere that require chain restaurants to post nutritional information on their menus means that (1) more American cities’ elected officials will propose simil...

Jessica Simpson, Robert Downey Jr. taking off weight It’s been awhile since we brought you a roundup of diet news from the world of celebrities, and we almost missed the drama (if you want to call it that) surrounding Jessica Simpson’s weight. First she was all over the magazines saying she like...

Twice as much potassium as sodium cuts heart risk Getting twice as much potassium as you do sodium could cut your risk of death from cardiovascular disease in half. That’s the conclusion of a study from Loyola University Health System in Chicago, which looked at people who weren’t asked to chang...

Kids who need vitamins usually don’t take them Children who are taking vitamins are often the ones who don’t really need them, while kids who could benefit from supplements because of their poor diets usually don’t take vitamins. That’s the conclusion of a study from the University of Califo...

Peanut product recalls extend to pet treats The Food and Drug Administration says it thinks a peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, is the sole source of the salmonella outbreak that has now sickened at least 468 Americans and one Canadian and has been linked to six deaths. More than 125 diff...

Men seem to switch off thoughts of food When volunteers didn’t eat for a day and then were asked to suppress thoughts of food, men reported fewer cravings and less feeling of hunger than women did, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. When given brain scans...

Fast food facts and foolishness The most fattening food in the country is fast food, right? Hold that thought. Researchers at Purdue University ran some analyses and found that meals from the fast food chains, while probably not healthful, are generally smaller and pack fewer calories than those at ...

Former Iowa governor to be announced today Though the announcement was unofficial at the time of this writing, it was expected that Barak Obama would announce former Iowa governor (and very brief contestant for the Democratic nomination) Tom Vilsack as his nominee for Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsa...

Out of sight, out of stomach Waltham Forest, a neighborhood in east London, is about to try something that would initiate an absolute firestorm of controversy, to say nothing of litigation, if attempted in the United States, and may do the same there as well. The local council, supported by 93 perce...

Cash incentives work, for awhile Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that giving people financial incentives to lose weight helped them lose more weight than people who didn’t get cash, at least in the short term. Fifty-seven participants were put into a program with either no ince...