Drawn-out Salmonella Probe Spurs Calls for Food-safety Revamp

Previously it was reported that the salmonella infections that killed several people in the US were caused by fresh tomatoes, FDA Warns Consumers Nationwide Not to Eat Certain Types of Raw Red Tomatoes Now the FDA has determined that the salmonella strain came from irrigation water and serrano peppers at a Mexican farm.

Produce Problem
Drawn-out salmonella probe spurs calls for food-safety revampBy Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch

Last update: July 30, 2008
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) Federal investigators say they are getting closer to the source of contamination that has caused more than 1,300 salmonella infections over the past several months, but critics say the slow progress on the investigation underscores the need to revamp food-safety procedures.

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration said the salmonella strain behind the recent outbreak has been found in irrigation water and a serrano pepper at a Mexican farm, according to media reports. It has taken months for investigators to get this information, and that lag is no surprise, critics say, given the outdated tracking system that U.S. authorities rely on.

“It’s not electronic and it doesn’t go from cradle to grave, from farm to fork,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives with Consumers Union, in an interview. “It’s a 100-years-ago method, a precomputer method.”

The problem may be bigger than perceived; for each reported case in an outbreak there may be three to 10 times as many people affected because some cases are not reported, according to Halloran. She criticized the lack of an electronic federal system to track food, and said health investigators end up spending too much on inefficient legwork.

“The current system, wherein those in the produce industry keep paper records that indicate one step forward and one step back in the supply chain, creates an enormous amount of work for any regulatory agency trying to follow a trail,” Halloran testified to a House agricultural subcommittee Wednesday.

Congress is investigating food-safety guidelines, calling regulators to account for the salmonella outbreak, which began in April and has continued into July. On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce’s oversight and investigations subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the recent salmonella outbreak.

Consumers Union suggests two options to improve traceability:

• Labels or marks on produce packages and the product itself that show country, facility, date and time where the item was first processed or shipped.
• Labels for each lot to track progress through the food distribution system.

Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, said Wednesday the agency has reached out to trade associations and consumer groups to better understand best practices for traceability, such as using electronic and other technologies.

The agency is scheduled to hold a public meeting in the fall about improving traceability, and a separate meeting in August about a food-protection plan and improving collaboration between federal, state and local partners.

It’s tough to pin down outbreaks when it comes to produce that is grown outdoors and therefore vulnerable to contamination from pathogens that may be present in the soil, water, fertilizer, or because of the nearby presence of animals, Acheson said.

“Produce also may be vulnerable to contamination due to inadequate worker health and hygiene protections, environmental conditions, inadequate production safeguards, and inadequate sanitation of equipment and facilities,” Acheson said. “Fresh produce is produced on tens of thousands of farms, and contamination at one step in the growing, packing, and processing chain can be amplified throughout the subsequent steps.”

Acheson added that Congress could help FDA improve food safety with new authorities, such as:

• Requiring food facilities to renew FDA registrations at least every two years.
• Authorizing FDA to accredit highly qualified third parties for voluntary food inspections.
• Authorizing FDA to refuse admission of imported food if FDA inspection access is delayed, limited or denied.
• Empowering FDA to issue a mandatory recall of food products if voluntary recalls are not effective.

Chronic Pain – Low Back Pain

Sometimes stress causes muscle pain between my shoulder blades or lower back. I also get lower back pain if I sit on the floor too long without back support. Many of the most serious forms of back pain are caused by injury or illness.

Chronic Low Back Pain

Getting Moving Will Help Your Back Pain
from Health.com

Back pain can send sufferers crawling to the nearest couch or bed, but it’s better to attack the pain with over-the-counter medications and limited exercise.

“In the past we used to tell patients with back pain to stay at strict bed rest,” says Jeffrey Goldstein, MD, Director of the Spine Service at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases. “We know now that staying in strict bed rest can actually exacerbate pain, so we essentially tell patients to take it easy and move as much as tolerated.”

Turns out your back needs exercise to heal. “The disks in your spine don’t have much blood supply or neural supply,” says Joel Press, MD, medical director of the Spine and Sports Rehabilitation Centers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. “Instead they get their nutrition from movement. Fluid squishes in and squishes out—if you don’t have movement the disks in your back don’t get the nutrition they need to be healthy.”

Exercise can include careful stretching, mild activity such as walking, and, as the pain improves, progressive stretching routines such as yoga (strengthening muscles helps relieve stress on the spine). Relaxation techniques are also helpful, teaching you how to systematically relax each muscle in the body. Stress, which can tighten muscles, is probably a cause of some low back pain.

“I see a correlation with stress,” says Jane Jones, 56, of Overland Park, Kansas. “When I’m going through a busy time at work or a stressful time with family, my back hurts.” Stress relief techniques, including exercise, can help with prevention as well as treatment.

The Three Types of Low Back Pain
content provided by Healthwise

The course of low back pain depends both on its cause and on how well you treat your back.

• Most low back pain lasts less than 3 months. Overall, 60% of low back pain goes away within 1 week, 90% within 6 weeks, and up to 95% recover within 12 weeks. Over 98% of low back pain is gone within 1 year.
• Once you have hurt your back, you are more likely to hurt your back again. Many people who recover from low back pain will have a repeat episode within a year. Most people will have it again sometime during their lives.
• Long-lasting (chronic) pain not only makes you tired, irritable, and less productive and active, but it can trigger other problems. If your back pain causes you to use your body in different ways (for example to limp or to sit differently), pain can develop in other areas of the body. Pain can also cause biochemical changes in your body that tend to keep the pain going. Without specialized treatment, chronic pain syndrome can become disabling.

Exercises to reduce low back pain

Low back pain is very common among adults and is often caused by overuse and muscle strain or injury. Treatment can help you stay as active as possible, and it will help you understand that some continued or repeated back pain is not surprising or dangerous.

Most low back pain can get better if you stay active, avoid positions and activities that may increase or cause back pain, use ice, and take nonprescription pain relievers when you need them.
When you no longer have acute pain, you may be ready for gentle strengthening exercises for your stomach, back, and legs, and perhaps for some stretching exercises. Exercise may not only help decrease low back pain, but it may also help you recover faster, prevent reinjury to your back, and reduce the risk of disability from back pain.

Exercises to reduce low back pain are not complicated and can be done at home without any special equipment.

It’s important that you don’t let fear of pain keep you from trying gentle activity. You should try to be active soon after noticing pain, and gradually increase your activity level. Too little activity can lead to loss of flexibility, strength, and endurance, and then to more pain.

What exercises may reduce low back pain?

Exercises that may help reduce or prevent low back pain include:

• Aerobic exercise, to condition your heart and other muscles, maintain health, and speed recovery.
• Strengthening exercises, focusing on your back, stomach, and leg muscles.
• Stretching exercises, to keep your muscles and other supporting tissues flexible and less prone to injury.

Some exercises can aggravate back pain. If you have low back pain, avoid:

• Straight leg sit-ups.
• Bent leg sit-ups or partial sit-ups (curl-ups) when you have acute back pain.
• Lifting both legs while lying on your back (leg lifts).
• Lifting heavy weights above the waist (standing military press or bicep curls).
• Toe touches while standing.

How do I exercise to reduce low back pain?

Most people who have back pain naturally feel better by doing certain motions. Some feel better sitting (their back and hips are flexed), while others feel better standing (back and hips are extended). Exercise that moves you toward your more comfortable position is usually more successful in treating your back pain. For example, if you are more comfortable sitting down, exercises that bend you forward—such as partial sit-ups (curl-ups) and knee-to-chest exercises—may help you.

Talk to your health professional before you start an exercise program, and only do exercises that do not increase your symptoms.

The most effective exercise programs for chronic low back pain are designed specifically for you and are supervised. For example, a physical therapist might instruct you in a home exercise program; then you would see the therapist every so often to check on your progress and advance your program.

Talk to your doctor or physical therapist if you are unsure how to do these exercises or if you feel any pain as you are doing the exercises.

• Try to exercise a little bit every day.
• Get some type of aerobic exercise, such as walking, every day. Even a couple of minutes will be helpful, and you can gradually increase your time.
• Choose a couple of stretching and strengthening exercises that you enjoy doing, or vary them from day to day.
• Ask your doctor or physical therapist whether there are additional exercises that will work best for you.

Stretching and strengthening exercises include:

• Extension exercises, which stretch tissues along the front of the spine, strengthen the back muscles, and may reduce pain caused by a herniated disc. These are generally a good choice for people whose back pain is eased by standing and walking.
• Flexion exercises, which strengthen stomach and other muscles, and stretch the muscles and ligaments in the back. These are generally a good choice for people whose back pain is eased by sitting down.
• Aerobic exercise includes walking, swimming, running, and biking. Non–weight-bearing exercise, such as swimming, tends to be a better choice if you have back pain. Walking in water up to your waist or chest is also good aerobic exercise.

You should keep taking easy, short walks when you have low back pain. You can likely start more intense aerobic exercise within 1 or 2 weeks after symptoms of back pain start. Begin with 5 to 10 minutes a day and gradually work up to 20 to 30 minutes of continuous activity per day.

You’ll find exercises to reduce low back pain with links to illustrations about how to do each exercise here.

Even if you have no back pain daily stretching exercises will help keep your back and spinal column healthy.

Trans Fat Labeling Gets Tricky

Some of my favorite foods are made with trans fats such as french fries, pies, biscuits, and cookies. It is possible to cook these foods without using trans fats as an ingredient so I will definitely look for more healthy recipes and check food packaging labels.

Read below to find out what trans fats are and why they are so harmful.

MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News)

Are 3 or 4 grams of trans fats in a serving of baked or fried food bad for you, or can you stop worrying?

Answer
Trans fats are always unhealthy, since no amount of the artery-clogging artificial fat is good for you.

However, a new study suggests that the Nutrition Facts panel found on the side of grocery store products does a poor job of getting that message across to consumers.

“It’s very misleading to just throw a number out there,” contends study author Elizabeth Howlett, a professor of marketing at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville.

Her team found that the average health-conscious consumer is often misled by trans fat information found on the Nutrition Facts panel.

The main problem is that because no amount of trans fat is good for you, it makes no sense to post a percentage of the “recommended daily value” — as is done with other ingredients such as sugar, or total or saturated fats. So consumers are just left with a number — such as 2, 3 or 4 grams of trans fat per serving — and no way of interpreting how unhealthy that might be.

Furthermore, compared to the amounts of calories or carbohydrates listed on the Nutrition Facts panel — which can often run into the dozens or hundreds of units — a few grams of trans fat can seem harmless, Howlett said. In that context, consumers often think, “4 grams, wow, that looks good,” she explained.

In reality, the American Heart Association states that anything over 2 grams per day of trans fat is definitely bad for you — and it’s preferred that your intake stay at zero.

The average consumer doesn’t know this, however. Reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Howlett and her colleagues had nearly 600 adults assess the relative nutritional value of a number of snack crackers with Nutrition Facts labels that were manipulated to display varying levels of trans fat per serving.

All of the participants had good reason to eat healthy: In one experiment all the volunteers were diabetic, and in a second experiment they had all been diagnosed with heart disease.

And yet the Arkansas team found that, in the absence of any education as to how much trans fat per day is good or bad for you, most participants failed to associate 3 or 4 grams per serving of trans fat with cardiovascular risk.

“When you tell someone what the trans fat level is in a product, and don’t give them any guidelines about how to evaluate what that number means, that can lead to some false inferences,” Howlett said.

The addition of trans fat to the list of ingredients on the Nutrition Facts panel is the first major change to the label since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first introduced it back in 1994.

Howlett didn’t offer any fix of her own to make interpreting the label easier for consumers, but she believes that “there needs to be some educational component or campaign” whenever changes to the Nutrition Facts panel appear.

“That’s something that the FDA would have to wrestle with,” she said.

One labeling note did seem to help study participants make healthier food choices, Howlett said. A manufacturer’s front-of-package claim that a product was “Low in Trans Fat” or had “Zero Trans Fat” did make participants more likely to consume the food in question.

Howlett supports the use of such claims, if valid, but notes that consumers still need to read the Nutrition Facts panel closely. That’s because a product can have no trans fat but still be very high in unhealthy saturated fats or sugars, she said.

Discerning how much trans fat is in a take-out or sit-down restaurant meal can be even tougher. “Consumers have very little understanding in an away-from-home food context,” Howlett said. “The information is there if consumers want to find it, but most consumers aren’t highly motivated to sit at the Web and find out exactly how many calories and grams of fat and trans fat are in [restaurant] products.”

The consequences of not knowing can be tough on the heart, however. According to a 2006 study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a typical three-piece combo meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken contains a whopping 15 grams of trans fat.

Diners in New York City will soon have an easier time avoiding trans fats in restaurants, however. Starting Tuesday, health officials there are banning trans fats from menu items in the nation’s largest city. A similar ban goes into effect in Philadelphia in September.

Things are slowly getting better in the grocery aisle, too, with most of the country’s biggest manufacturers of packaged and processed foods beating a quick retreat from the use of trans fats in their products. But trans fat is still a prime component in many products. For example, Digiorno’s Garlic Bread Crust Pepperoni Pizza For One contains 3.5 grams of trans fat per serving, as well as 16 grams of saturated fat, according to its Nutrition Facts panel. And Drake’s Coffee Cakes also contain 2.5 grams of trans fat per serving (2 cakes), the product’s panel says.

All of this means more must be done to educate consumers about the dangers of any level of trans fat, Howlett said. She believes the FDA needs to learn from the current confusion around trans fat numbers, to help consumers better interpret the Nutrition Facts panel the next time a change comes around.

“If there’s going to be further changes — because who knows what they are going to find next — there also needs to be some sort of guidance for consumers, to be able to evaluate this information,” Howlett said. “We are trying to get the information there that consumers need to make an informed choice, at the time that they are making the decision.”

To learn more about trans fats, visit the American Heart Association. This site has more detailed information about man-made and natural occuring trans fats.

What is a trans fat?

“A trans fat is a type of man-made fat in which the chemical bonds of a vegetable oil, normally liquid at room temperature, are changed so that it becomes solid at room temperature and more shelf-stable,” she said. The fats’ chemical bonds become “twisted,” hence the name “trans.” Natural trans fats can occur as well, but they are not thought to be harmful.

Why are these compounds so bad for us?

According to Sandon, man-made trans fats have been shown to greatly boost levels of harmful LDL cholesterol, helping clog arteries with fatty plaques. Many nutritionists believe trans fats are even more dangerous than saturated fats.

How can I avoid trans fats?

“Trans fats are typically found in processed foods, particularly snack foods or bakery items,” Sandon said. These would include cookies, crackers, pre-packaged donuts, muffins, even chewy granola bars. Always check labels. Better yet, stick to fresh, whole foods, vegetables, grains, nuts, lean meats, low-fat dairy and soft tub buttery spreads made with liquid vegetable oil.

If a product says “low” or “zero” trans fat, is it good for me?

Not necessarily. “You still must think about what else is in, or not in, the food,” Sandon said. “The words [no] trans fat or low fat does not mean healthy.”