Hot MedFax

I don't know about you but I can't remember ever eating a half-cup of ice cream. Yet that's what manufacturers have listed on their ingredients list as the serving size for the calorie count. Now that's going away.  Labels will soon have to reflect actual serving sizes, according to Sabrina Tavernise, " putting calorie counts in large type and adjusting portion sizes to reflect how much Americans actually eat." Unless you're eating at a fancy restaurant, the size of a bowl of ice cream is usually about two cups these days. But the Food and Drug Administration has finally recognized just how ridiculous the serving sizes are when calculating calories and is now proposing changes. “It’s an amazing transformation,” Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the F.D.A., tells Tarvernise. “Things like the size of a muffin have changed so dramatically. It is important that the information on the nutrition fact labels reflect the realities in the world toda...

Where do you stand on genetically modified food ?  If you're like most Americans, you'd rather not -- or at least know when you're eating it. But the agriculture industry has been successful in fighting the distribution of this knowledge, using big bucks and political allies (read: Congressmen they sponsor). But last month Vermont became the first state to pass a bill requiring "labeling of foods produced using these genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, and thankfully, my home state, Connecticut. Right to Know GMO, a self-described grass-roots coalition with members in 37 states, counts 26 states that have introduced labeling bills, passed its own, according to Dan D'Ambrosio of USA Today. Barbara Boxer, Democrat from California, always in the forefront of protecting the consumer, whether from guns or artificially assembled food, told D'Ambrosio in an e-mail, "As more and more states take action, I believe lawmakers in Washington will realize tha...

Now we've seen it all? Nutrition labels on alcohol?  It's coming. We already have warnings on pregnancy but now the Treasury Department, which regulates alcohol, "said this past week that beer, wine and spirits companies can use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving. Such package labels have never before been approved," according to Mary Clare Jalonik of the AP. The labels, however, are voluntary so you probably won't be seeing too many of them. I don't know about you but when I'm drinking my Cosmopolitan , I don't really want to know it has the same number of calories as a brownie, or two (212). That's what was behind the famous Skinny Girl cocktail brand, putting fewer calories in liquor. But I'm not in the mood to count calories when I'm out drinking.  It's just not the most important thing on my mind. Some weight loss experts say to treat it as a piece...