Labels

It was evidently good enough for Gilligan and Robinson Crusoe. But is coconut water a healthy choice for people who aren't stranded on a deserted island? A longstanding treat in tropical regions across the globe, coconut water hit U.S. supermarkets a few years back and is now being marketed with a vengeance. Sometimes billed as nature's sports drink, the slightly sour beverage has also acquired a reputation for being able to improve circulation, slow aging, fight viruses, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The Obama campaign Tuesday launches a tough new hit on Mitt Romney's record on jobs and his personal wealth, raising for the first time in paid advertising the fact that the Republican had assets in a Swiss bank account. The ad buy, which a campaign aide called "significant," is at the same time an offensive maneuver meant to try and shape how the public views the now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee and a defensive one, reacting to another multimillion-dollar television campaign from a leading outside group.

Activists rejoiced last week when a hard-fought battle over international standards for labeling genetically modified food came to an end — finally — after decades of debate. But the agreement, which many say opens the door for labels to be placed on such foods, will probably have little effect on food labels in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. And that could be a good thing, some scientists said. "The public gets bogged down on whether [crops are] genetically engineered or not. We think that's a distraction," said Pamela Ronald, a professor of plant pathology at UC Davis.

Troubled film financier David Bergstein has sued the owners of Miramax, alleging that they denied him money and an equity stake owed for his role in the acquisition of the film label from Walt Disney Co. in 2010. The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the law firm Weingarten Brown, contends that Bergstein — who has been involved in dozens of lawsuits, many related to his activities in the film business — played a crucial role in the deal to acquire Miramax. It asserts that Santa Monica private equity firm Colony Capital, one of Miramax's new owners, and its principal Richard Nanula conspired to deny Bergstein a $6.1-million fee and 3.3% stake they agreed to provide him as part of the purchase.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

The Food and Drug Administration announced plans Tuesday to clamp down on food labeling that it says may mislead consumers into thinking products are more nutritious than they are. In particular, the FDA will target the front panels of packages bearing logos or language suggesting that the product is more healthful than the actual ingredients justify, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. "There's a growing proliferation" of symbols purporting to indicate healthfulness, and "some nutritionists have questioned whether this information is more marketing-oriented than health-oriented.

Cigarette packages will soon carry graphic images warning about the perils of smoking, because the earnest, if understated, written message simply wasn't doing the trick. The new images have already grabbed so much attention, it appears health officials may be on to something. Perhaps this could be a way to fight weight gain. With French fries and potato chips -- and, of course, sweetened drinks -- named this week as culprits in the nation's growing girth, perhaps the same approach should be applied to junk food.

You can give people all sorts of useful information, but that doesn't mean they'll use it. Case in point: the Nutrition Facts panels inscribed on nearly every can, box, jug, carton and plastic wrapper in which food has been sold since 1994. These small, unassuming charts are there to enlighten consumers about the fat, sodium, carbohydrate, fiber, sugar, protein, vitamin, mineral and calorie content of the product inside. Many consumers say they rely on this information - in a survey conducted last year by the International Food Information Council Foundation, 68% of Americans credited the labels with helping them decide which foods and beverages to buy (and which to pass up)

Baidu Inc., China's largest search engine, has struck a deal to license songs from three major record labels, giving music companies a rare victory against piracy in the world's most populous country. Terms of the multiyear deal, announced Tuesday, call for Baidu to pay Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for each song that is downloaded or streamed through Baidu's new ad-supported music social network, dubbed Ting. Baidu also agreed to pay the labels for songs delivered through its MP3 Search service.

Got iron? You may want to check. The top five items that Americans are seeking to maximize when they scan the Nutrition Facts labels on packaged foods are, in descending order: whole grains, dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin C and protein, according to a recent report from market research firm NPD Group. Not a bad list overall, but it includes protein, which is not lacking in most American diets, and excludes iron, one of the more common deficiencies. "Growing adolescents and premenopausal women tend to be deficient in iron," said Lalita Kaul, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Assn.

As the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival expands from one weekend to two, so do the fashion and music marketing opportunities in Southern California. Labels such as Levi's, H&M, Lacoste, Armani A|X, Mulberry and Madewell (J. Crew's little sister) not only will be targeting the boho masses with free watches and sunglasses, they will also be courting the performers in the hope that they will attend their high-profile events. The labels are leveraging both festival weekends (April 13-15 and 20-22)

With polls showing him comfortably ahead one day before the Wisconsin Republican primary, front-runner Mitt Romney joined with native son Rep. Paul Ryan to make the case that the GOP has the best formula to bring the federal budget under control. Ryan, who last week endorsed Romney, introduced the candidate at a campaign event at a building supply business in Green Bay, declaring that Romney is the best candidate to head off a "predictable economic crisis" if the federal deficit is not brought under control.

It's expensive! It's exotic! It's superfruit! Meaning what, exactly? The term "superfruit" has been applied to acai berries, maqui berries, yumberries, chokeberries, goji berries, lingonberries, lychee berries - a lot of berries, in other words, but also baobabs, mangosteens, sea buckthorn, jujube fruit, cupuacus, pitayas, pomegranates ... the list keeps growing. You may wonder what is it about these fruits that lifts them out of the ranks of the ordinary into exalted superfruit status.

Mitt Romney 's victory lap the day after the Illinois Republican primary has been erased by an Etch-A-Sketch, leaving the candidate to deal with a new wave of online mockery aimed at Romney's perceived tendency to adjust his views. On Tuesday night, Romney won a convincing percentage of the Illinois electorate, giving momentum to his campaign's claim that he is the inevitable nominee. On Wednesday morning, he landed the endorsement of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush . But Romney campaign aide Eric Fehrnstrom, speaking on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien," obliterated the positive vibes with his response to a question on whether the campaign was worried that some of its more conservative positions would alienate moderate voters in the general election.

Spoek Mathambo grew up in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where his adolescence was defined by the end of apartheid. Now 27, this South African singer-rapper-producer has emerged as one of the year's most exciting new artists, with a bold sound bent on stylistic desegregation and an unlikely relationship with an American indie-rock label. Mathambo funnels a dizzying number of influences - both musical and cultural - into “Father Creeper,” due out Tuesday on Seattle's Sub Pop. His music is an electro-acoustic melee of swaggering rap verses, scratchy rock guitar, singsong vocal hooks and staticky white noise.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, recently depicted the conflict in Syria as "civil war. " Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added that there was "every possibility" of civil war breaking out in Syria. Both of these portrayals of the conflict were meant to ratchet up pressure on the international community to prevent further violence. But in fact, describing a conflict as a civil war achieves exactly the opposite effect. It is not a call to arms; it is a call to inaction.

California farmers want the Department of Food and Agriculture to issue labels to indicate that no harmful pesticides are being used on fruits or vegetables (Part I, May 4). How would Sacramento know? Put an inspector on each product? No. Would the customer believe it? Not necessarily! Let the farmers put their own stamp of approval on their own produce. Consumers would be far more assured of quality and safety. DAVID H. ATKINS Los Angeles

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from products carrying the federal organic label. Today those same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90% of organic baby formula. The government's about-face came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff.

Robert E. Gray, co-founder and longtime chief executive of women's clothier St. John Knits, died Tuesday at his Orange County home after a long illness. He was 86. Gray and his wife, Marie, started the company in a San Fernando Valley garage in 1962 on a romantic whim. Marie Hermann, a model who used the surname St. John professionally, wanted to raise money for a Hawaiian honeymoon, the story goes. She persuaded her fiance, Gray, who was an apparel salesman, to show a sample of a dress she designed and knit to a store buyer, thinking she might sell 20. Gray returned with orders for almost 200. "I absolutely collapsed," Marie Gray said Thursday.