News on Health and Nutrition from the Americas

Most cooks are familiar with the thickening properties of corn starch, but potato starch is every bit as much up to the job, say scientists with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). They’re working on a project to further examine the structure and...

As of Jan. 1 2009 more than 1,500 fast-food and chain restaurants throughout Seattle and King County will be required to post on their menu boards or some other "easily readable"sign how many calories, milligrams of sodium and grams of satura...

Research released today by the National Restaurant Association shows that Americans are looking for healthier options and "greener"restaurants when they dine out, in addition to an increased interest in value and convenience. Surveys of resta...

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has filed a bill that would ban the sale of food with trans fats, the "bad"fats in items such as shortening and margarine that have been linked to high cholesterol, heart disease and stroke. "Alr...

Even as artery-clogging trans fats continue their fast fade from the nation's food supply, there are early signs that 2009's nutrition "bad guy"will be salt. Salt is being siphoned from soups, banished from breads, channeled out of chips, e...

Eating a high-fat diet in pregnancy may cause changes in the foetal brain that lead to over-eating and obesity early in life, research suggests.Tests on rats showed those born to mothers fed a high-fat diet had many more brain cells specialised to prod...

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. announces the introduction of a new set of highly automated and easy to use applications for potato snack &french fries producers on it’s Thermo Scientific Arena analyzers.

With so much emphasis on health care during the current presidential campaign, whoever wins next Tuesday’s election will need to make some speedy decisions about the runaway medical costs occasioned by America’s unhealthy eating habits. Salt will lik...

In an attempt to improve public health, a group of scientists, dieticians, food makers and retailers have created a nutrition labelling system called the Smart Choices Program (TM). The labels, featuring the symbol of the program and other information ...

The average American consumes between 6,000 and 18,000 milligrams of salt daily. The body only needs about 200 milligrams.

So here it is, a PotatoPro Newsletter on 'McDonald's World Famous Fries' or MacFries as I will keep calling them in short. Yes, as far as I could figure out they were called MacFries, not McFries, even though Google gives more than twice as much hits on McFries than MacFries.

The typical Western diet — fried foods, salty snacks and meat — accounts for about 30 percent of heart attack risk across the world, according to a study of dietary patterns in 52 countries reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Associ...

New York City has issued nearly 700 citations to restaurant chains for not complying with new calorie posting rules. McDonald’s had most violations.The city has issued 682 violations to restaurant chains since a new law took effect five months ago requ...

California se convirtió el martes en el primer estado estadounidense que exigirá que las cadenas de comida rápida anuncien las calorías en su menú. El estado estima que sus residentes colectivamente han aumentado 165 millones de kilos en la última déc...

Burger King Corp. (NYSE:BKC) announced today that all BURGER KING(R) restaurants nationwide are now cooking with trans fat free cooking oils. Furthermore, by Nov. 1, 2008, all BURGER KING(R) menu ingredients will contain zero grams artificial trans f...

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) today announced that its U.S. divisions, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food, will become the first national restaurant chains to begin voluntarily placing product ...

California on Tuesday became the first U.S. state to require fast-food restaurant chains to list calories on their menus.The state estimates that residents collectively have gained 360 million pounds (165 million kg) in the last decade, and it sees the...

The Clinton Global Initiative Thursday recognized Yum Brands Inc for its worldwide commitment to raise and donate $80 million over the next five years to help the World Food Programme and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in ...