Month: August 2021

Photo: Cate Gillon (Getty Images) A depressing new report finds that kids and teens are eating even more ultra-processed foods than they were 20 years ago, with those foods now constituting over two-thirds of their diets. Ultra-processed foods are heavily altered, with numerous added ingredients like fats, starches, sugars, food dyes, and stabilizers. These added components can make the food look different, taste different, or extend its shelf life in comparison with minimally processed foods that are pretty much consumed as they occur naturally. (In other words, no doughnut is a minimally processed food.) Consumed in excess, these foods are linked to obesity, heart disease, and ultimately, mortality. But in the United States, we have a dependency on the stuff. There are various defin...

Latest updates: Lost your COVID vaccine card? Here’s what you can do: With more and more businesses as well as public and private employers in the Bay Area and California requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination, it seems more important than ever to keep track of that little piece of paper you got with your vaccine. But what happens if you lose it? Find out here. Texas governor sued over ban on mask mandates: Gov. Greg Abbott’s order banning mask mandates faces mounting resistance from local officials as soaring COVID hospitalizations send the state's health-care systems into crisis mode. San Antonio and Bexar County officials sued Tuesday, seeking to halt Abbott's directive, which bars local governments from issuing mask require...

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Guinea confirmed a case of Marburg virus disease, the World Health Organization has said, the first recorded in West Africa of the virus that is related to Ebola and, like COVID-19, passed from animal hosts to humans. The virus, which is carried by bats and has a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, was found in samples taken from a patient who died on August 2 in southern Gueckedou prefecture, the WHO said late on Monday. “The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. The discovery came just two months after the WHO declared an end to Guinea’s second outbreak of Ebola, which started last year and killed 12 people. In Geneva, the WHO said it considered the threat “high” ...

Ultra-processed foods -- such as frozen pizza, microwave meals, packaged snacks and desserts -- accounted for 67% of calories consumed in 2018, up from 61% in 1999, according to research published in the medical journal JAMA Tuesday. The study analyzed the diet of 33,795 children and adolescents nationwide. While industrial processing can keep food fresher longer and allow some foods to be fortified with vitamins, it modifies food to change its consistency, taste and color to make it more palatable, cheap and convenient -- using processes that aren't used in home-cooked meals. They are also aggressively marketed by the food industry. "Some whole grain breads and dairy foods are ultra-processed, and they're healthier than other ultra-processed foods," said senior author Fang Fang Zhang, ...