Hot MedFax

Quick.  Would you pick a creamy milkshake over a Big Mac?  A bag of M&Ms over macaroni and cheese? A red velvet cupcake with gobs of icing over a hotdog loaded with sauerkraut? If so, you've just proved a new theory.   Sugar wins out over fat every time. According to Anahad O'Connor at The New York Times, " An intriguing new study suggests that what really draws people to such treats, and prompts them to eat much more than perhaps they know they should, is not the fat that they contain, but primarily the sugar." She notes that new research tracked brain activity in more than 100 high school students as they drank chocolate-flavored milkshakes that had the same amount of calories but were either high in sugar and low in fat, or vice versa. "While both kinds of shakes lit up pleasure centers in the brain, those that were high in sugar did so far more effectively, firing up a food-reward network that plays a role in compulsive eating," she reports. ...

OK, so they got rid of the cheesy pizzas and french fries and fried chicken.  But what about the chocolate cake? A new study has found that while school lunch programs have indeed dropped most of the fatty foods, they've done nothing about the sugar. philly.com reports, "The federal government caps the amount of fat and salt in breakfasts and lunches. It sets minimum standards for servings of fruit, vegetables, grains, milk and meat. But one widely used and often-overused product has no official limits: sugar." And here's a chilling thought: do the feds not focus on sugar because of its powerful lobbyists? According to the Web site, recent research shows that sugar levels in school meals are more than double what is recommended for the general public. "Elementary school lunch menus contain 115 percent of the recommended daily calories from added sugars and fats, according to a November study by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service." And mid...