News for Now Update: Week of November 7, 2021

Food Banks Suffer Pandemic Impacts
Surging food prices and supply chain back-ups have added to a growing list of pandemic related issues affecting millions of low-income Americans. Food banks—which were once a temporary solution to food insecurity but are now mandatory—are feeling the impact. They’ve been forced to come up with creative solutions to fulfill their mission to feed hungry people. Read more at Now This News.

Palm Oil’s Connection to Cancer Risks
Researchers have discovered that palmitic acid (found in palm oil) promotes cancer metastasis in mice, establishing a link between diet and cancer mortality; however, this and other fatty acids were not found to increase the risk of cancer in the first place. What’s next? Scientists are planning a clinical trial of proteins that interfere with the tumor response to palmitic acid as a means to arrest cancer metastasis. Learn more in The Guardian.

Should Government Reduce Sugar Consumption?
Results from a recent study in The American Heart Association journal “Circulation” suggest that a government funded sugar reduction policy could greatly minimize the number of medical issues caused by a high sugar diet. The research also revealed that “this reduction of sugar could save $160.88 billion net costs from a societal perspective over a lifetime.” Read about this in Harvard Health Publishing.

Senator Cory Booker and the “Second Food Crisis”
Is the U.S. finally waking up to the realization that our food system is designed to feed national corporations at the expense of public health? Last week, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition stated the problem succinctly during the The State of Nutrition in America 2021 Subcommittee meeting, “Now we face that second food crisis—one of nutrition insecurity where too many Americans are overfed but undernourished and are seeing these staggering rates of disease and early death.” Learn more in MedPage Today.

“In 1940, Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. founded the Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. Hospital in Monrovia, California, for the treatment of respiratory diseases. This is one of the many articles by Dr. Pottenger that can be found in the PPNF research archives. The undated article provides an interesting historical perspective on appetite and its importance in good nutrition.” Apparently, devices at the dinner table were a no-no even in 1930/40, as you’ll read… Access the article in the Price-Pottenger Journal of Health and Healing.