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
Dec
23
2008
FDA warns Coke: Coke Plus violates Jelly Bean rule!
Thanks to Jack Everitt for forwarding an article from Reuters U.K. about the FDA’s recent warning to Coca-Cola. Coke Plus, says the FDA, violates the Food and Drug Act. Food companies are not allowed to add vitamins and minerals to sugary carbonated water (or jelly beans) just so they can be marketed as healthy.
OK, but Coke Plus is not exactly a secret. How come the FDA waited to do this until this “midnight” period just before a new administration takes over? And how come, asks Jack, do we have to “hear about this from a UK newspaper, rather than a US one. Just like with the last election, we now have to rely on out-of-the-country news sources.”
Let’s hope the FDA is a high priority for Obama. It should be!
