Melamine was the biggest problem in the dog food recall a couple of weeks ago that was a result of dangerous dog food killing animals throughout north america. After that food scare some people started looking at the human food sources that may have melamine in them.

Today the FDA came out with a press release that stated that food for people does not seem to be dangerous. Here are a couple of quotes from that press release.

There is very low risk to human health from consuming meat from hogs and chickens known to have been fed animal feed supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds, according to an assessment conducted by scientists from five federal agencies.

In the most extreme risk assessment scenario, when scientists assumed that all the solid food a person consumes in an entire day was contaminated with melamine at the levels observed in animals fed contaminated feed, the potential exposure was about 2,500 times lower than the dose considered safe. In other words, it was well below any level of public health concern.

The risk assessment is an important new science-based component of the continuing federal joint investigation into imported wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate from China that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds.

The risk assessment was conducted by scientists from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This team is now compiling a scientific assessment of the risk to animal health associated with ingestion of animal feed containing melamine and its compounds.

Hopefully now we will not have to worry about melamine and can concentrate on all of the other issues from pesticides to salmonella in our food.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China, couple, dangerous dog food killing animals, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, dog food, Environmental Protection Agency, fda, feed, food, food and drug administration, food health, Food Safety and Inspection Service, food scare, human food sources, pet food scraps, potential exposure, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Many people understand the importance of good nutrition, but believe that a daily vitamin pill will substitute for actually eating the fruits and vegetables that they know are good for them.

The more we learn about nutrition and the human body, however, the more we realize the importance of eating whole foods. That is why the American Dietetic Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture still recommend that we eat two to four servings of fruit and three to five servings of vegetables a day.

Here is an example of what science has found. During the last 15 years, a number of studies have shown that people who eat a diet rich in beta-carotene have a lower rate of several kinds of cancer. Beta-carotene is an antioxidant chemical naturally found in foods such as sweet potatoes, winter squash and carrots, and is also available in a pure, synthetic form.

The pure form of beta-carotene has become a popular dietary supplement, either by itself or as an ingredient in multi-vitamin pills. A number of recent studies, though, have not shown that taking beta-carotene in pill form lessens the risk of cancer.

Why should a nutrient in a pill be less effective than the same nutrient obtained from food?

Scientists are still studying this issue, but one thing seems clear: beta-carotene and other nutrients are most beneficial to health when they are consumed in combination with each other, as naturally found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.

These foods contain not only the well-known vitamins (A, B, C, etc.) that are often found in vitamin pills, but also hundreds of naturally occurring substances, including carotenoids, flavonoids, isoflavones and protease inhibitors.

These substances appear to protect against cancer, heart disease and other chronic health conditions. They work in different ways, and we are only beginning to understand their healthy role. Often, though, they work best when in combination with each other.

There is nothing wrong with taking multi-vitamin supplements to help ensure that we get certain nutrients every day. Pills, however, will never be able to give us the healthy combination of phytochemicals and other substances found naturally in food.

These can only be gotten from eating a varied diet, rich in plant foods. Fruits and vegetables in particular are virtual gold mines of health-enhancing substances. Don’t cheat yourself of their benefits by relying on supplements that contain just a few of the better-known nutrients.

by Maj. Vivian T. Hutson, Deputy Chief, Nutrition Care
Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii

Tags: American Dietetic Association, antioxidant chemical, cancer, Deputy Chief, Dietary Supplement, food, hawaii, heart disease, Nutrition Care Tripler Army Medical Center, other chronic, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vivian T. Hutson

Mens Health is a great magazine ofr telling it like it is, sometimes with a liitle to much brovado. I think this article is really worth it to read though for food substitutions that can make a real difference.
If you keep eating the way you always have, you’ll never improve on the body you’ve got. And the prognosis — on the mom diet, at least — isn’t good. Look at your dad. That’s why we’re providing you with 15 sneaky ways to improve your diet. Same foods, better results. And nobody needs to be the wiser. Just think of these food strategies as the cork in your bat, the glue on your glove, your own personal, syringe-wielding East German Olympic swim-team coach. Only difference is, each one is simple, nutritionally sound, and perfectly legal in all 50 states.

1. Whey your options
Add a cup of ricotta cheese to your fruit smoothie. Ricotta is a soft, mild cheese that’s made almost entirely of whey, the liquid that separates from curd during the cheese-making process. Whey contains cysteine, an amino acid that helps produce a cancer-fighting antioxidant called glutathione. When Ohio State University researchers treated prostate cells with whey protein, glutathione levels jumped by 64 percent.

2. See red
Got leftover tuna salad? Stuff it into a red bell pepper instead of sandwiching it between two slabs of Wonder bread. Red peppers and other red-fleshed fruits such as tomatoes, watermelons, and ruby-red grapefruit are high in lycopene, a phytochemical that can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 20 percent. Bake the pepper and you’ll make it even more potent; heat makes lycopene easier for your body to absorb.
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