HEALTH
March 22, 2012 | By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
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.
BUSINESS
October 21, 2009 | Andrew Zajac
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.
NEWS
June 25, 2011 | By Tami Dennis, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog
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.
HEALTH
February 20, 2012 | By Karen Ravn, Special to the Los Angeles Times
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)
BUSINESS
July 20, 2011 | By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times
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.
HEALTH
August 16, 2010 | By Nara Schoenberg, Chicago Tribune
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.