Artificial sweetener use increased 200% among children and 54% among children from 1999 to 2012. Health experts are especially concerned about the spike in use among kids because the scientific community still doesn’t know the full health repercussions of long-term, low-cal sweetener use. [1]
In a report published December 8, 2016, the CDC said that in 2015, heroin deaths spiked by more than 2,000 cases since 2014, resulting in a sad milestone: There were more heroin-related deaths that year than gun homicides. As recently as 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths by more than 5 to 1. [1]
Source: The Washington Post
An anticancer drug known as paclitaxel may actually cause breast cancer to spread to the lungs, according to the rather horrifying results of a recent study.
Earlier in 2017, a study revealed that chemotherapy may cause cellular changes in both a breast cancer mouse model and in a small number of human breast cancer sufferers.
A report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that prenatal exposure to flame retardants may lead to lower IQ test scores in children. Further, the more of the chemicals a pregnant woman is exposed to, the more likely she is to give birth to a child with lower intelligence. [1]
Researchers point out a correlation between saturated fat consumption and lung cancer, suggesting that people who eat a diet high in saturated fat (found in butter and beef) have a greater risk of developing lung cancer than those who eat a low-fat diet. Smoking increases the risk even further. [1]
Mondelez International, the parent company of the Triscuit brand, announced August 7, 2017 in a news release that it has switched its entire portfolio to the Non-GMO Verified Certification. The move was made in response to the growing demand from buyers for wholesome food products free of genetically-modified ingredients. [1] [2]
The Non-GMO Project is the #1 leading independent verifier of non-GMO foods in the United States, as well as the only third-party non-GMO verification system in the country. [2]
Costa Rica is hoping to make a dent in the trillions of plastics polluting the oceans and the environment by becoming the first country to ban all single-use plastic products by 2021.
Some U.S. cities, states and other countries have either banned plastic bags or are working on a plan to do so, but that only touches the surface of what Costa Rica wants to do. Forks, lids, coffee stirrers, water bottles, and a multitude of other products would be prohibited under the ban. [1]
Eggs contaminated with a potentially harmful insecticide were imported from Europe and have been distributed throughout the United Kingdom and other countries, according to England’s Food Standards Agency (FSA). [1]
The number of eggs containing the insecticide fipronil, used in flea and tick products, is thought to be very small, thank goodness, but grocers in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland have had to pull millions of eggs from store shelves as a precaution.
It is believed that fipronil was used on chickens in Belgium.
The decline in bee populations and the many threats bees face have been well-publicized. Scientists have been frantically hunting for solutions to the problem. Without bees, we lose much of our food. Without food, well …we don’t want that. Thankfully, there is a bit of good news on the conservation front: honeybee populations are finally on the rise. [1]
The doctor behind the technology that helped birth one of the world’s first 3-parent babies has been told by the FDA that he must stop marketing the experimental procedure.
According to the agency, John Zhang, a New York fertility doctor who helped a Jordanian couple give birth to a baby boy in 2016, had promised the FDA his companies wouldn’t use the technology in the U.S. without the agency’s permission, but they continued to promote it.
