Trans Fat Food Labels: Misleading to Consumers?
Is there trans fat in that? (iStockphoto)
(CBS) Quick: Have you already exceeded the daily recommended limit for trans fat intake today?
Answer: You probably have no idea.
Although the snack you bought out of the machine may read "zero trans fat," zero doesn't necessarily mean zero.
FDA policy allows a serving of food that contains less than 0.5 g of trans fat to claim to contain none at all. Eric Brandt, a researcher and medical student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is calling for a change in that policy.
Continue »David Arquette Enters Rehab: What for?
David Arquette arrives at Spike TV's 'Scream 2010' at The Greek Theatre on October 16, 2010 in Los Angeles (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
(CBS) Add David Arquette to the list of actors to have gone into rehab.
"He is in there for drinking and depression, not hard drugs. Rehab was inevitable," People magazine reported.
Continue »Zsa Zsa Gabor's Leg To Be Amputated
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, on September 11, 1989 (WADE BYARS/AFP/Getty Images)
(CBS/AP) Zsa Zsa Gabor, 93, was hospitalized Sunday to have part of her right leg amputated.
Doctors examined a lesion on Gabor's leg that had gone from just over an inch to about a foot and was growing gangrenous, said her publicist, John Blanchette, who added that the amputation would likely be below the knee.
Continue »Kwanzaa Recipe: Easy West African Peanut Stew
Sandra Pinckney is host of the Food Network's "Food Finds." The long-running show profiles food entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on locavoric, family-run businesses that use sustainably sourced ingredients. (iStockphoto/personal)
(CBS) Whether or not your family is celebrating the Kwanzaa feast of Karamu this year - traditionally enjoyed on Dec. 31 - this scrumptious West African peanut stew could make a unique and healthy addition to your holiday menu.
This recipes comes from my mother, Sandra Pinckney, a fellow journalist and Food Network host.
I love the combination of spices in mom's cooking: the cumin and coriander are wonderfully fragrant, the crushed pepper gives it some heat, and the natural, unadulterated peanut butter makes the sauce creamy and rich.
Enjoy.
Glue in the Eye: What to Do?
Prince Frederic Von Anhalt put his wife's nail polish glue into his eye by accident (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
(CBS) Glued your eyelid shut? That's gotta hurt.
Just ask Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, who was rushed to the hospital in Bel Air, Calif. after mistaking a bottle of glue for eyedrops on Tuesday.
"It was dark and he grabbed his wife's nail glue instead of eyedrops," the family's publicist, John Blanchette, told CNN.
"You would be amazed at how many times this happens," Dr. Michael Kutryb, an ophthalmologist in Titusville, Fl., tells CBS News.
Continue »Tracy Morgan on Mend after Kidney Transplant
Comedian Tracy Morgan (right) at Madison Square Garden on October 30, 2010 in New York City. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)
(CBS) Tracy Morgan, star of NBC's "30 Rock," is recovering after a successful kidney transplant.
Morgan, 42, who plays a mentally unbalanced comedian on the sitcom, is taking time off from the show to recover following surgery about 10 days ago, reports Entertainment Weekly. The actor was diagnosed with diabetes in 1996.
Continue »Fatty Acid in Dairy Products Cuts Diabetes Risk
A compound in dairy fat has been linked to lower diabetes risk (iStockphoto)
(CBS) Watching your diet? If so, whole milk, butter, and cheese probably aren't regulars on your shopping list.
Should they be?
Scientists at Harvard School of Public Health have identified a fatty acid in whole dairy foods that is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The compound, trans-palmitoleic acid, is a chemical cousin of cis-palmitoleic acid, a diabetes-blocking acid produced naturally in the liver.
Continue »Avastin for Breast Cancer: Life Saver or Not?
Genentech/Roche is the maker of the controversial cancer drug Avastin (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(CBS/AP) Breast cancer patients are up in arms over the FDA's recent recommendation that the drug Avastin no longer be used to treat breast cancer.
Recent studies indicate that Avastin does not affect overall survival of metastatic breast cancer patients - and causes significant side effects - but some patients credit their survival to the drug and say the FDA's action could amount to a death sentence.
Continue »Activia for Constipation? Maybe Not
Dannon will change its marketing practices and pay $21 million to the Attorneys General of 39 states to settle allegations that Dannon made unsubstantiated and unlawful marketing claims on its Activa and DanActive products. (AP Photo)
(CBS/AP) Does eating Dannon's probiotic-infused Activia yogurt help keep things moving in your digestive tract?
That's the claim made on the yogurt's packaging and in commercials. Dannon also claimed probiotics are the secret to DanActive, a yogurt drink it said helps prevent colds.
It won't make those claims anymore. The Federal Trade Commission ruled there's not enough evidence to back up those statements, and now the French-based company has to pay up - big time. That means $21 million in settlements with state and federal regulators.
So what's the deal with probiotics?
Sick Teens Have Fewer Friends
Teenagers in poor health have fewer friends (iStockphoto)
(CBS) Having friends adds to the quality of life and probably makes you healthier, right? That's old news. Here's what's new: Teenagers with chronic health problems, like asthma, have fewer friends than healthy teens do.
Young people are less likely to say they are friends with a student who is obese or chronically ill, says Dr. Steven Haas, an Arizona State University sociologist.
His findings are based on surveys given to over 2000 middle and high school classmates as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Interestingly enough, it seems like the sick teens don't realize they have fewer friends than their peers, according to researchers. Sick kids listed about the same number of friends on their surveys as did the healthy ones, but the healthy kids were less likely to put the names of the sick kids on their list.
From the report, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior : "We find important relationships between the health status of adolescents and the characteristics of the social network positions within which they are embedded. Overall we find that adolescents in poor health form smaller local networks and occupy less central global positions than their healthy peers."
In other words, insult to injury.
MORE HEALTH CONTENT FROM CBS NEWS
Post-Abortion Syndrome - Myth?
(CBS) Can having an abortion cause a woman to suffer mental problems? Probably not, according to the latest research.
To some, this might seem like a no-brainer, but the findings are in direct contradiction to a well-publicized 2009 study which found women who reported having had an abortion had higher rates of substance abuse and mood disorders than women who had not.
Last year's study, led by Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, analyzed data collected by the National Comorbidity Survey. Coleman found that large numbers of women who had abortions ended up suffering from what the media called "post-abortion syndrome."
Continue »Alzheimer's Patients Being Overmedicated?
Critics say drugs are not the best way to deal with difficult dementia patients (istockphoto)
(CBS) Caring for dementia patients can be difficult, but that's no excuse for pumping them full of antipsychotic drugs, said panelists at a recent Senate Aging Committee forum.
Over-medication occurs far too often in those with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, panelists said, and as baby boomers get older, the problem will only worsen.
Continue »Get Thin By Thinking (About Cake)
If she thinks about that cupcake before she takes a bite, she might not eat the whole thing (iStockPhoto)
(CBS) Dieters often try to avoid thinking about the foods they crave, but maybe that's the wrong approach.
Imagining yourself biting into a luscious piece of chocolate cake - thinking about the way it smells, the creamy texture of frosting on your tongue - may make you eat less of it, a new study suggests.
This finding challenges age-old conventional wisdom that tells us thinking about goodies increases our cravings and ultimately our consumption, according to a study from Carnegie Mellon.
Continue »BPA = Is Your Money Dirty?
BPA, the hormone-disrupting chemical, has been found on dollar bills (iStockphoto)
(CBS) If dealing with money causes you stress, this new study isn't going to make the holiday shopping season any easier.
Potentially toxic BPA - a.k.a, bisphenol A - has been found on dollar bills in a recent investigation conducted by the Washington Toxics Coalition in Seattle.
All but one of the 22 bills tested were contaminated with the pollutant, which gained notoriety when it was found coating cash register receipts. It can also be found in canned foods and baby bottles.
Continue »Social Smoking Can Be Deadly: Surgeon General
The latest Surgeon General report on smoking is scary. (istockphoto)
(CBS/AP) - Bad news for "social smokers" - just one drag on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack. Lung cancer is what people usually fear from smoking, and yes, that can take years to strike. But the surgeon general's 30th annual report on smoking and health says tobacco smoke begins poisoning immediately, as more than 7,000 chemicals in each puff rapidly spread through the body to cause damage to nearly every organ. Continue »
