Here’s a wrap-up of recent news related to nutrition and health:

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  Starbucks will stop using milk products that contain artificial growth hormones in most Western and New England states.  No bovine growth hormones (rBGH) in your coffee!  And they will stop selling food items containing trans fats.  Go Starbucks!


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  Last month, New York became the first city in the country to ban all restaurants from using trans fats by mid-2008.  Now Seattle is considering the same.  Hopefully this won’t be as difficult as figuring out how to replace the viaduct.  Unfortunately, most trans fats are replaced with palm oil which has its own environmental impact and potential health concerns (see previous post about palm oil).


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  E. coli food poisoning at Taco John's restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota was traced back to a California, Central Valley lettuce grower.  At another restaurant, the source of contamination at the Eastern state Taco Bells has not been determined.  Maybe lettuce shouldn’t travel so far until it is eaten!?  And cattle manure shouldn’t be in close proximately to lettuce and spinach farms.  (Review, E. coli grows in the intestines of animals).  Our animal and produce farming practices need to be reviewed.