"reduced" news and stories

It's the eternal battle amongst dieters - low carb/no carb? lowfat/reduced fat? Low cal? There is a strong argument for every one.

According to the early findings of research that has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that compared people on lowfat diets versus people who follow a Mediterranean diet -- not "The" Mediterranean Diet, but "A" Mediterranean diet, the general term for a diet that includes large amounts of fat in the form of olive oil and tree nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts.

Though the complete study is not yet through its entire four years, participants so far who have been following Mediterranean lifestyles have experienced increases in HDL, decreases in LDL, and decreases in inflammation.

This is, of course, not new information, but encouraging for those of us who don't seem to find that lowfat diets work for our body types. Healthy or not healthy, it sure works for me, since Mediterreanan is in my top five cuisines!

Source

The USDA announced this week that it will reduce the number of cattle tested for mad cow disease by 90 percent, the Associated Press reported. Agricultural Secretary Mike Johanns said Thursday that testing one percent of the 35 million cows slaughtered annually in the U.S. is more than what's necessary. The number of cattle tested on a daily basis will now fall from 1,000 to around 110. Current testing costs are approximately $1 million per week, according to the AP. "There is no significant BSE problem in the United States," Johanns said, "and after all of this surveillance, I am able to say there never was."