Health, Personal Health

The American Dietetic Association's survey of consumer attitudes regarding food and nutrition shows that health continues to play a key role in consumer diets. Nearly half of consumers (43%) feel that they are currently doing all they can to eat a healthy diet, and 67% feel that diet and nutrition are personally very important to them. People also note consuming less in beef, pork, and dairy.

A study conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who ate wild game killed with lead bullets appeared to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or no wild game.

A study of 1,500 Chinese women showed those who ate a "meat-sweet" diet were twice as likely to develop breast cancer compared with those on a vegetable-based diet.

A new study conducted in England has found that nearly all of the campylobacteriosis cases in the patients evaluated were caused by bacteria in animals farmed for meat, in particular chicken and cattle. In the European Union, 175,000 people suffered from campylobacter in 2006, while in the U.S. the number is estimated at 2-3 million annually.

Oxford University researchers found that people who adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet are six times more likely to sustain brain shrinkage than meat eaters due to the former's lack of vitamin B-12, which is found in meat, fish, and dairy products including cheese.

In a study released by The Lancet Oncology, Dean Ornish, M.D. and his colleagues found that comprehensive lifestyle changes, including a low-fat vegan diet, increase the body's ability to fight premature aging, cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses.

An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) has revealed that the drinking water of at least 41 million people in the United States is contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs, including medications used for farm animals.

Poor diets and rising obesity rates among Americans persist despite increased public awareness of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. This report presents a consumer demand model to illustrate how both long-term health objectives and immediate visceral influences—long intervals between meals and eating away from home—can drive individuals’ food choices. The model predicts that cognitive dietary information will have less influence on food choices in the face of immediate visceral factors. [Excerpted from report]

This report examines changes in consumers' use of nutrition labels on food packages between 1995-96 and 2005-06. The analysis finds that, although a majority of consumers report using nutrition labels when buying food, use has declined for most label components. This includes the Nutrition Facts panel and information about calories, fat, cholesterol, and sodium. By contrast, use of fiber information has increased.