A WOMAN'S HEART: The American Heart Association has released new guidelines for preventing and treating heart disease in women. It notes most women still do not realise heart disease is more likely to kill them than anything else.
The new guidelines - available at http://www.americanheart.org - stress lifestyle as the first line of attack. Stopping smoking, losing weight, exercising every day and eating a healthy diet come next. But they also call for aggressive use of drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure in high-risk women.
TRANS FATS OUT: US Meat processor Tyson will cut trans fats from a range of meat products, the meat titan said last week. It is joining other US food makers pressed to remove this artery-clogging ingredient from their product ranges. In Europe, meanwhile, investment in an alternative to trans fats is growing with food giants Loders Croklaan breaking ground on the biggest palm oil refinery in Europe. The oil is produced from the fruit of the oil palm, or Elaeis Guinnesis tree, and is cholesterol-free. Production is mostly concentrated in Asia.
RISING OBESITY: A study by the Food Standards Agency in Britain shows 25 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women who took part were obese. The results, based on a 2001 survey, contrast with a separate National Diet and Nutrition Survey from 1987, which found eight per cent of men and 12 per cent of women were classified as obese. Participants in the 2001 survey aged 50 to 64 were most likely to be obese, while the 19 to 24-year-old age group had the smallest number of people in the same category.
MAKING IT CLEAR: Pressure is growing for clearer labelling and greater honesty about the ingredients in food and drink. The head of the new European Food Safety Authority, Mr Geoffrey Podger, has called for a ban on claims that foods high in salt, sugar and fat are healthy. The consumer magazine, Which?, has also called for clearer labelling of additives. In a BBC interview, Mr Podger said he wanted to put a stop to the practice of adding supplements such as vitamins to foods high in fat or sugar, so they can be marketed as healthy.
CARB MAYHEM: The Centre for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group in Washington, has backed a campaign for improvements in US food labelling: While labelling rules exist for nutrient claims like "reduced fat" and "low-calorie," the US Food and Drug Administration has never defined "low-carb", "reduced carb", or "carb-free" which makes those claims illegal. But, in recent weeks, manufacturers have started to flood supermarket shelves with foods that make implied low-carb claims like "carb-smart", "carb-aware", and "carb-sense". "Food companies can do whatever they want right now," said Bonnie Liebman, CSPI's director of nutrition. "It's like the Wild West of labelling out there."