Finding comfort in food and other top headlines

What's wrong with a little comfort food? This story links to a Gallup poll on the "healthy behavior index." From the story:

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI), the health habits of many Americans are improving during this new year, but there's still a long way to go. The WBI's Healthy Behavior sub-index, an in-depth measure of Americans' exercise, eating, and smoking habits, rose to 61.2 in January; a slight reversal of the sharp decline that occurred at the end of 2008. Even with this uptick, the healthy behavior score is still considerably lower than the 63.3 recorded last January.


Later...

While two-thirds of respondents (66%) said they ate healthily all day "yesterday," a smaller number, 54%, reported that in the last seven days they had eaten at least five servings of fruits and vegetables on three or more of those days. This disconnect may mean that for many Americans the definition of what eating healthily is could be unclear and that they are unaware of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.

As Americans continue to struggle under the weight of the economic crisis, Amy Neftzger, Healthways Lead Researcher, points to the importance of raising awareness about healthy eating habits during times of undue stress. Neftzger says that in stressful situations "some individuals are prone to 'stress eating' and either overeat or resort to comfort foods, and these comfort foods tend to be higher in fat and caloric content than healthier choices, such as a salad."

TK: Comfort foods - who can blame Americas for a bowl of chocolate ice cream at the end of a long, cheerless day? Interesting talk about the "disconnect" between what people think is healthy eating versus what is recommended. Someone should let Gallup know that 5 a day is yesterday's news..now it is 5 to 9 fruits and vegetables a day.


Other headlines snatched from the Web:

Now we will have to eat 20 fruits and vegetables a day
According to natural health expert Dale Pinnock, we actually need to eat 20-a-day in order to achieve our optimum nutritional intake.
He said: "The current five-a-day recommendations are based on standard dietary guidelines written 40 years ago, when the soil was richer in vitamins and minerals. Now, because of intensive farming methods and increased pollution, fresh fruit and vegetables don't contain nearly enough nutrients. We need to up our intake drastically, which is why natural supplementation is becoming much more important."

Peanut plant salmonella brings call for food safety reform USA Today

California specialty crop advisory committee under formation Imperial Valley News

New look Wal-Mart draws praise Delmarvanow.com

Lawmakers vow to strengthen FDA authority Federal Times




EU marketing standards for fruits and vegetables USDA FAS

Commission Regulation 1221/2008 provides for a general marketing standard for all fresh
fruits and vegetables and repeals specific marketing standards for 26 products. For 10 types
of fruit and vegetables, specific marketing standards remain in place. The regulation will
apply as of July 1, 2009.
The new rules were notified to the WTO under the TBT Agreement in August 2009 (WTO
Notification G/TBT/N/EEC/210). The U.S. commented on the notified rules on October 14,
2008.

U.S. home prices slide by 12% in fourth quarter From Bloomberg
The median price of a U.S. home declined 12 percent to $180,100 from a year earlier and sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for 45 percent of all transactions, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors said today. Prices declined in almost nine out of every 10 cities.

Washington growers back labor bills to ease labor crunch The News Tribune

Argentina - farmer's tale of woe From FarmingUK and Washington Post

Argentina is suffering its worst drought in decades and the cattle are dying by the barnload. Since October, the drought has taken down 1.5 million of the animals, according to an estimate by the Argentine Rural Society, in a country that last year sent 13.5 million to slaughter. The cattle for the most part are dying of hunger, as the dry skies have shriveled up their pastures, along with huge swaths of Argentina’s important soy, corn and wheat fields.

Food safety critical issue for vegetable growers Farm Press

Truckers cautious with infrastructure optimism From Purchasing.com

ARS scientists make progress on fighting citrus disease USDA