Commentary: Vegan Diets and If It Makes Kids Shorter and Weaker

Vegan dish

Diets that exclude meat and fish (vegetarian) or all animal products including dairy and eggs (vegan) are becoming increasingly popular for health, environmental and ethical reasons.

Past research in adults has linked vegetarian and vegan diets with a reduced risk of heart disease but a greater risk of fractures, caused by low calcium intakes. But the impact on children has not been evaluated, until the release of a new study this week.

The researchers found a link between shorter heights and lower bone mineral content among vegan children, compared to meat-eaters. But they didn’t show vegan diets caused the difference. Nor can they say the differences will last into adulthood.

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Independent Women’s Forum Celebrates Reversal of Michelle Obama’s School Lunch Rules

by Nick Givas   Julie Gunlock of The Independent Women’s Forum celebrated the reversal of former first lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules on “Fox & Friends” Monday, saying children will get more nourishment from the new menus. “These reforms that went through in 2010 pushed by Michelle Obama, were well-intentioned, but in reality kids were not eating the food,” Gunlock said. “And we saw that there was a major food waste problem developing in some of these schools.” Gunlock claimed students were so unhappy with the quality of the food they began throwing the meals into the trash. “Kids were taking entire trays and throwing them in the garbage,” she said. “One study said 60 percent of vegetables, 40 percent of fruit was just being tossed. In one L.A. County, the school made an arrangement with a homeless shelter to give the food because they had so much left because, again, kids were not eating the food. So these reforms are just to give school cafeteria workers essentially more flexibility to make the food tasty as well as nutritious.” Co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked if it was wise to return to the old lunch menus simply because children didn’t enjoy the healthier options. Gunlock said detractors were…

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The Government May Require Almond Milk, Soy Milk to Use Non-Milk Names

Dairy Cow

by John-Michael Seibler and Taylor Chaffetz   If Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists have their way, consumers of common non-dairy “milks”—such as almond milk and soy milk—may soon have to buy those products under obscure labeling such as “plant juice” and “tree-nut beverage.” In another unfortunate instance of overcriminalization, after efforts to make it a crime to label non-dairy products as “milk” stalled in the Senate, the Food and Drug Administration may now be trying to do through regulatory means what Congress has been unwilling or unable to do through legislation. That’s an utter shame—pun intended—especially for an administration otherwise committed to sensible deregulation. Last year, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., introduced the “Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, Milk, and Cheese To Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday Act”—the “DAIRY PRIDE Act.” That would make it a federal crime to use the term “milk” on the label of any beverage not derived from “lacteal secretion … obtained by the complete milking of one or more hooved mammals.” The bill’s main premise is that plant-based products labeled as “milk” mislead the average American into thinking that it either comes from cows or has the same nutritional content as a cow’s milk. It also suggests that…

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The Story of How Halo Top Ice Cream Reached the Top

 by Brittany Hunter   No one expects healthy desserts to taste good. It is one of life’s harsh realities that we have had to learn to live with: you can either eat healthy food, or eat delicious food; you can’t have it both ways. But that was before Halo Top entered the market and was met with unconventional success. Visit any grocery store that sells the healthy protein-packed ice cream in the late afternoon or evening hours and you will see empty shelves where the beautiful gold-lined pints once stood. So high in demand are these low calorie, low fat, low sugar ice cream flavors, large supermarket chains can barely keep up with the consumer demand. But unlike many successful brand name products, Halo Top comes from humble origins. In fact, its creators had to overcome some major obstacles and wait six years before they achieved market success. And what is perhaps most intriguing about Halo Top is its refusal to do things in the traditional way. But it is this innovative mindset and the ability to learn from mistakes that has helped Halo Top reach the top. Changing the Way We Eat Ice Cream For many of us, ice…

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How Government Makes Us Fatter and Fatter

by Jenna Robinson   The government, with its accomplices in the food lobby, has helped to make and keep us fat. Through subsidies and misguided food suggestions, Congress, the FDA, and the USDA have made it more difficult for Americans to make smarter dietary decisions. It’s not as if we don’t care. Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight-loss products and services. At any given time, 45 percent of women and 30 percent of men in the United States are trying to lose weight. And yet Americans are more out of shape than ever. Obesity is a major health risk in the United States, where 65 percent of adults are overweight. The prevalence of obesity rose from 14.5 percent in 1980 to 30.5 percent today. The percentage of children who are overweight is at an all-time high: 10.4 percent of two- to five-year-olds, 15.3 percent of six- to 11-year-olds, and 15.5 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds. Misinformation Remember the food pyramid? In 1982, government authorities told Americans to reduce fat consumption from 40 percent to 30 percent of daily intake—and we took their advice. Instead of fats, Americans began eating more carbohydrates: an increase of 57 grams per person from…

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Study Suggests Link Between Ultra-Processed Foods and Cancer

Scientists suggested on Thursday a link between cancer and “ultra-processed” foods such as cookies, fizzy drinks and sugary cereals, though outside experts cautioned against reading too much into the study results. Researchers from France and Brazil used data from nearly 105,000 French adults who completed online questionnaires detailing their intake of 3,300 different food items.

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Commentary: Did ‘Government Expertise’ Make America Fat?

by Richard Morrison   A panel of government experts gets together and decides what is healthy to eat and what isn’t. What could possibly go wrong? Freethink Media’s new video on the history of the Food Pyramid will make for surprising viewing for anyone who assumes official health and nutrition advice should be taken at face value. Starting in the late 1980s, the office of the U.S. Surgeon General took the lead in waging the federal government’s war on dietary fat. This led to years of recommendations and public information campaigns that, among other things, demonized animal protein sources (that often come along with a significant amount of fat) and steered Americans towards consumption of lots of low-fat carbohydrates instead—the base of the pyramid. Many Americas will remember the 1990s as the golden age of carbs. Now, of course, further research suggests that going down that path has actually made diet-related chronic health issues like obesity and diabetes even worse. And the same is true for other items on the government’s food enemies list. My colleague Michelle Minton documented in her detailed 2016 study Shaking up the Conventional Wisdom on Salt the largely false narrative most Americans have come to believe about sodium consumption and high blood pressure. Not…

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