Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
Nov
25
2008
Melamine esoterica
I am hearing rumors that the melamine crystals that caused kidney blockage in Chinese infants are not the same as the ones that harmed cats and dogs last year. The crystals in pets’ kidneys were formed of melamine and its by-product, cyanuric acid. The ones in infants seem to be made of melamine linked to uric acid. Fortunately, these are not nearly so lethal.
Uric acid is not a contaminant. It is a normal breakdown product of components of DNA and RNA, excreted in urine. Babies – and adults – normally excrete uric acid through the kidneys. Really, eating melamine is not a good idea and putting it into pet food, animal feed, or human food is nothing short of evil.
