Health & Medical

Wine, fast food, beer, a heavy meal: all things that make you crash right to sleep, right? New research shows that though these foods may help you fall asleep, they don't actually make your sleep any more restful.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget recently wondered if there were some magic food to solve sleep problems but found that it was more plausible to define which foods actually hinder sleep.

As it turns out, if you want to get a good night's rest, don't consume a ton of fat or alcohol before hitting the hay, as these both have the ability to disrupt the REM cycle, which is when your body actually rests.

Avoiding being left in the dust of the new health wave, as propelled by Mrs. Obama's meeting with major food markets in May, Kraft announced Monday that it will be pumping up its whole grain content in more than 100 of its products over the next three years.

This move comes after four years of development, the company says, in an effort to increase the use of whole grain without sacrificing the taste consumers have come to know. Despite industry skepticism, Kraft and other major food companies, including ConAgra and Del Monte, recently claimed they've made reductions in sodium; others, in sugar. Last June, Kellogg claimed it would increase fiber by the end of 2010 and last week introduced a line of FiberPlus cereals.

The term "whole grain" signifies an unadulterated product of wheat, something that became less common as major food companies realized that stripping the grain's kernel of its bran, endosperm and germ (all of its nutritional fiber, iron and vitamin content) would produce a finer texture and increase shelf life.

You might want to think twice before rinsing off raw chicken in your kitchen sink.

Recent studies by the British Food Standards Agency show that rinsing chicken can potentially spread bacteria on work surfaces in a three-foot radius, The Daily Telegraph reported. The report says up to 75 percent of consumers wash poultry before consuming it.

The FSA says 65 percent of raw chicken is contaminated with campylobacer, the most common cause of food poisoning, the paper reported. And while cooking will kill the bug, Campylobacter causes more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning and 15,000 hospitalizations a year in England and Wales.

The newest food stuff to come under scrutiny isn't a member of the fast-food circuit but rather of Native American culture: fry bread. This doughy hole-less puff is best centered under a helping of chili, soaking in juices to be eaten by the finger-pluck-full.

But according to Health magazine's June 29 report, it's among the 50 fattiest foods in the country, reports Argus Leader, a local newspaper of Sioux Falls South Dakota, whose large Native American population named fry bread the state bread in 2005. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that one slice of fry bread the size of a large paper plate has about 25 grams of fat," the magazine's report notes. And a recent episode of fitness show "Losing it with Jillian" depicts the bread as "poisonous," the Leader reports.

Last month, as they've done every five years since 1980, the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) released their proposed changes to the USDA Dietary Guidelines, more commonly known as the food pyramid, which will be finalized by the end of the year. The recommendations were open to written public comment until last Thursday -- at a public hearing in D.C. on July 8, nearly 50 industry advocates had their say. The concern remains: How will the public react to the update?

More after the jump...

Perdue Farms is recalling 91,872 pounds of cooked, frozen chicken nuggets because of the potential some may contain pieces of plastic, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The company's voluntary recall is of 1-pound, 13-ounce bags of "GREAT VALUE Fully Cooked Chicken Nuggets." The affected nuggets show the establishment number P-33944 as well as a case code of 89008 A0160 on the bag, the Journal-Constitution reported.

No other Great Value or Perdue products are affected, the company said. Great Value is sold at Wal-Mart stores.

Read more after the jump...

If you believe the ads, the probiotic-lined straw in Boost Kid Essentials drink would "prevent upper respiratory infections, strengthen the immune system and reduce absences from school." Wow, does it do windows, too? Making wild claims is nothing new in the food industry, but it looks like the government is starting to crack down. The Federal Trade Commission went after Nestle, the maker of the drink, claiming the ads went too far.

The company agreed to stop making the claims. The straws contained a dose of L. Reuteri Protectis, a probiotic culture marketed by a company called BioGaia. The popularity of probiotics has skyrocketed in the past few years, with consumers finding doses of the "good" bacteria in yogurts, juices, and powders. Manufacturers claim the products help regulate internal flora, improving health and digestive function.

Evidently, though, the government wasn't impressed with Nestle's ads, and sent them a warning letter late last year.

As the nation works to address the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, including this year's launch of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign, there may be one big stumbling block on the road to a solution: parents.

A recent study published in the July-August issue of the journal Academic Pediatrics confirmed past reports that a significant number of parents of overweight children do not know that their kids are overweight. When asked whether or not their children were a healthy weight, more than 40 percent of parents of overweight kids said yes.

"Parents don't recognize weight problems or don't know how to make things better," Dr. Eliana Perris, lead author of the study and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Science Daily. "Even if they do, there are often barriers to healthier eating or more activity for these families."

Next time the waitress offers you chips and dip at your local Mexican joint, it may be wise to take a pass -- and not just for your waistline.

The Centers for Disease Control released a report that found that contaminated salsa or guacamole were responsible for nearly 1 in every 25 outbreaks of food-borne illness in restaurants from 1998 to 2008, MSNBC.com reported.

The rate nearly doubled over the previous decades, officials said.

"Fresh salsa and guacamole, especially those served in retail food establishments, may be important vehicles of food-borne infection," Magdalena Kendall, a researcher at Tennessee's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education told MSNBC.com.

Individual ingredients in the tasty dips have also been linked to salmonella outbreaks including peppers, tomatoes and cilantro.

Ready Pac Foods is recalling 702 cases of Baby Spinach with Use-by dates of July 4 and July 8 due to possible E. coli contamination. While no illnesses have been reported, the California company has issued this voluntary recall and is working closely with the FDA to protect public health.

The recall extends only to products with these Use-by Dates or Product Codes (11707B, IR127121, 12007B, IR130373) sold in the following states: California, Washington and Arizona.

Read the entire release from the FDA.