CDC
White House taps Georgia state health official to head CDC
President Trump plans to appoint the Georgia state public health commissioner, Brenda Fitzgerald, as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Washington Post. Fitzgerald is president-elect of the organization representing public health agencies and "has strong ties to Republican leaders," including Health Secretary Tom Price, a former Georgia congressman, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said the newspaper.
Raw milk or cheese involved in most cases of dairy-borne illness
More and more states are allowing the sale of unpasteurized milk, a trend that raises public health concerns, according to research published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Are Americans losing their taste for sugary drinks? Maybe not.
A pair of studies released by the Centers for Disease Control indicate that children and adults consume roughly the same amount of calories from soda and other sugary beverages, such as sports drinks, as they did at the start of the decade, says the Washington Post. "Rates have stalled at well above the recommended limit."
Higher mortality in rural America than cities, CDC finds
A CDC study found "a striking gap in health between rural and urban Americans," says the agency's director Tom Frieden. Rural Americans are more likely than city-dwellers to die from the five leading causes of death – heart disease, cancer, accidental injury, chronic lower respiratory disease and stroke – which account for more than 60 percent of deaths, according to the study published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report
Dozens sickened by eating raw dough, FDA says
Dozens of people across the country have become ill by eating raw dough contaminated with a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the FDA said. The doughs had been made with General Mills flour produced in a Kansas City, Missouri, facility.
CDC blames backyard poultry flocks for salmonella outbreak
Seven separate outbreaks of salmonella this year have been linked to backyard chicken flocks, resulting in 66 hospitalizations, the CDC said. One person who was hospitalized also died, though salmonella was not considered a factor in the death.
General Mills recalls 10 million pounds of flour in food illness probe
Eating organic won’t keep you safe from pesticides, but it helps
What kind of produce you eat makes all the difference in your pesticide exposure, says a paper out by Consumer Reports. For example, “eating one serving of green beans from the U.S. is 200 times riskier than eating a serving of U.S.-grown broccoli.”
More than one-third of adults in U.S. are obese
More than one-third of adult Americans - 36 percent - are obese and so are 17 percent of youth, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a "Data Brief," the agency says there was no significant change in rates over the past couple of years after a steep climb in the early 2000s. Obesity is associated with chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Vilsack: Healthy school meals, greater access to food are vital
Despite political polarization, Congress should keep child nutrition programs rolling towards healthier school meals and making the food available to more youngsters, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in spelling out his goals for reauthorization of the programs.
As Americans get heavier, obese outnumber the overweight
The portion of Americans who are overweight or obese is growing, with three-fourths of men and two-thirds of women in those categories, say two researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine. "Overweight and obesity are associated with various chronic conditions," say Graham Colditz and Lin Yang in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Obama seeks $1.2 billion to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria
"The Obama administration wants to double the amount of federal funding dedicated to combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria," says the Washington Post, based on comments from White House officials in advance of the fiscal 2016 budget request.
Children eat 40 percent more salt than recommended
More than 90 percent of U.S. children eat far more salt than recommended by the government, putting them at risk for developing high blood pressure and heart disease later in life, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Vital Signs report, CDC researchers said that 43 percent of the sodium comes from the 10 foods most commonly eaten by children: pizza, bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks, sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties/nuggets/tenders, pasta mixed dishes, Mexican mixed dishes, and soups.
Diet as infant has lasting effects; low carbs for lower weight?
A series of 11 nutritional studies published in the journal Pediatrics indicate that dietary preferences are determined during infancy, says the New York Times. It says researchers compared the diets of 1,500 six-year-olds to their food patterns during their first year. Says the Times story: "(W)hen infants had infrequent consumption of fruits and vegetables, they also had infrequent consumption at 6,” said Kelley Scanlon, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C. and the senior author of a few of the new studies.
Children still eat less fruit and vegetables than recommended
Children and teenagers are eating more fruit than in the past but still don't consume as much fruit and vegetables as recommended, say scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in squid
For the first time, antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found in food - raw squid - "widening the potential exposure for consumers," said the Washington Post, based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.