A new study reports that children of women who ate peanuts during pregnancy had lower rates of peanut allergies than women who were told not to eat peanuts. This could be good news. But I’m baffled by food allergies. Why are rates rising? Why don’t we know more about them? Why isn’t there more research? I’m getting lots of questions about them lately. Good places to start: The National Library of Medicine explains the research. ...

A new study reports that children of women who ate peanuts during pregnancy had lower rates of peanut allergies than women who were told not to eat peanuts. This could be good news. But I’m baffled by food allergies. Why are rates rising? Why don’t we know more about them? Why isn’t there more research? I’m getting lots of questions about them lately. Good places to start: The National Library of Medicine explains the research. ...

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The Mercatus Institute has produced a report arguing that food miles - the environmental cost of the distance food travels - is a meaningless concept based on erroneous assumptions, and that the “buy local” movement is focused on the wrong issues. I don’t know anything about the Mercatus Institute other than what is on its website, and I don’t recognize the names of its members. Anybody know anything about it?

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has a big project on marketing foods and beverages to children. Its most recent report singles out television advertising as the most pervasive medium; even babies watch TV and see loads of commercials for junk foods. The authors, Nicole Larson and Mary Story of the University of Minnesota, provide an excellent one-stop review of methods, expenditures, and other such data, along with useful suggestions for what to do about this ...

A rare rhino rat snake (Rhynchophis boulengeri) emerges from its shell at ZSL London Zoo. This is the first time these so-called “green unicorns”, from the mountains of Vietnam, have been bred in a European Zoo. The Reptile House produced a clutch of eight snakes. They grow to a metre long. Source: BBC News - Science & Environment

I’m told that FDA laboratories are still finding melamine in milk-containing food products imported from China. In response, the FDA has issued a countrywide import alert, meaning that FDA officials can detain the products without having to examine and test them. The list of detainable products is long and includes not only milk but also yogurt, desserts, cakes and cookies, candies, chocolate, beverages, and- shades of 2007 - dog and cat food.

The Government Accountability Office says fixing the food safety system should be a high priority for the new administration. Specifically, it asks the new President to: Reconvene the President’s Council on Food Safety right away, and develop longer term structures to promote interagency coordination on food safety. Develop a “governmentwide performance plan” for agencies to ensure that goals are complementary and resource allocations are balanced. Encourage Congress to assign the National Academy of Sciences to ...

I don’t really know why this would surprise anyone but a new study demonstrates that when presented with supermarket choices, even preschool kids choose the same foods their parents usually buy. The moral: if you don’t want your kids eating junk food, don’t have it in the house!

USDA’s latest analysis says yes, but only if they make careful food choices, avoid convenience foods, and live in a low-cost area. At the time of the study, a half gallon of whole milk, for example, cost a lot less in Pittsburgh ($1.45) than it did in Boston ($2.51) . But can people in low-income areas even find food? The Rudd Center at Yale has a new report out on how tough it is to ...

Notes:_ "troisième chimpanzé" de Jared Diamond._qui est Jerome Kerviel?

Hugo and I were working on a halloween party yesterday evening. The light was terrible, exactly as it should at halloween I guess, but very difficult for a caricaturist. So I decided to work less speedy and concentrate on bodies and background.

Do you know what sets you off? If you find yourself saying, far too often, “Oh no! It’s got me again,” this is for you. Many of us are tripped up by things that spark an emotional reaction. One moment we’re sitting, relaxed and content, and the next we’re being led by the nose by an advertising jingle, a newspaper headline, or some emotional slogan. If we want to lower stress—and stay in charge of ...

Big Food companies have gotten together and agreed on a scoring system to identify “better-for-you” packaged foods (see below). Thanks to my colleague in Copenhagen, Morton Strunge Meyer, for sending the link to the qualifying crieteria. Having one checkmark instead of the various ones run by PepsiCo, Kraft, and Unilever seems useful if - and only if - the criteria are stringent and comprehensive, and this symbol replaces all of the others. Even so, this ...

Big Food companies have gotten together and agreed on a scoring system to identify “better-for-you” packaged foods (see below). Thanks to my colleague in Copenhagen, Morton Strunge Meyer, for sending the link to the qualifying crieteria. As is true of scoring systems in general, these are complicated and constitute a slippery slope. Take sodium, for example. The allowance is particularly generous (junk foods don’t taste good without it) - 480 mg per serving. That means ...

I had promised my very dear friend Annekee (or actually, her husband Mike) a long long time ago to make them a caricature. Last sunday we were visiting them in their beautiful house in Amsterdam, and finally I had a chance to show them the result..... I believe it was a succes, or should I say the laugh of the day?Mike, Annekee, Floris and India proudly posing next to their recently obtained caricature.Oh my God, ...

Thanks to Andy Bellatti of Small Bites for sending the link to this most instructive “flowing” map of the growth of Wal-Mart across America from 1962 to 2007. Have some Jell-O from the previous post (see comments on it), sit back, and enjoy.

Consumer Reports International counted the sugars and salt in kids’ products in 32 countries. The sugars don’t look good, but they look worse in the U.S. Kids’ cereals have lots of sugars–40% of the calories internationally but 55% in the U.S. Consumer Reports will describe the U.S. part of the survey in its November issue. In the meantime, it says kids’ cereals changed their names from “Sugar” to “Honey” in the 1980s, but the sugars ...

SOURCES_La photo de la carte est tirée de ce site fourre-tout_ Le tardigrade est aussi surnommé "water bear" parce que sa démarche pataude rappelle celle de l'ours. On dirait vraiment un petit chien(vidéo ici) alors qu'il mesure moins d'un millimètre._Présentation du Tardigrade, tout ce à quoi il peut résister et détail de la mission spatiale TARDIS qui emmena des tradigrades dans l'espace et leur fit subir le vide spatial ICI et LA_Un autre site bien ...