Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) – First lady Michelle Obama is praising what has often been one of the left’s biggest targets, Walmart, for helping to fight obesity and “food deserts” in the United States. “At Walmart, you can believe that as America’s largest retailer, you have an obligation that goes far beyond the bottom line,” Obama said Thursday at a Walmart in Springfield, Mo. “You know that every day, with the products you sell, you’re helping parents get by on a budget -- which is what everybody in this country is trying to do. You’re helping kids get the nutrition they need to...

A nurse is researching whether an old family remedy using sugar to heal wounds does actually work. Moses Murandu, from Zimbabwe, grew up watching his father use granulated sugar to treat wounds. Sugar is thought to draw water away from wounds and prevent bacteria from multiplying. Early results from a trial on 35 hospital patients in Birmingham are encouraging, but more research is needed. One of the patients who received sugar treatment on a wound was 62-year-old Alan Bayliss from Birmingham. He had undergone an above-the knee amputation on his right leg at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and, as...

Looking to cut back on the calories in your cocktail by mixing, say, diet soda and rum? Well, get ready for the buzz. According to the results of a new study, this combination will leave you drunker than if you'd mixed the liquor with a sugary, caloric mixer. "Alcohol, consumed with a diet mixer, results in higher (BrAC) Breath Alcohol Concentrations as compared to the same amount of alcohol consumed with a sugar-sweetened mixer," says Cecile Marczinski, a cognitive psychologist who authored the new study. Why? Turns out that sugar slows down the absorption of alcohol from the stomach to...

SOUTH BAY, Fla. -- From a distance it looks as if tornadoes are churning in the fields. But as you get closer, you see that the dark plumes are clouds of black smoke. And if your smell is keen enough, you realize it's sugar cane that's burning. Trucks hauling trailers full of cane stalks crowd the northbound lanes of Route 27 for a stretch just south of Lake Okeechobee. In the southbound lanes the trailers are empty. They're running between the cane fields that dominate this northernmost part of the Everglades and the Okeelanta sugar mill, owned by the Fanjul...

This is your brain on sugar—for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating. After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn’t register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found. It’s a small study and does not prove that fructose or its relative, high-fructose corn syrup, can cause obesity, but experts say it adds evidence they may play a role. These sugars often are added to processed foods and beverages,...

FARGO, N.D. — Their ranks thinned by a 16-month lockout, American Crystal Sugar Co. workers on Saturday rejected a contract for the fourth time. Contract opponents say the sugar beet processor’s five-year contract offer would cut health care benefits and weaken job security and seniority protections. The company says the offer would raise worker pay by 17 percent over five years when a $2,000 signing bonus is taken into account. Leaders of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union said in a news release that the workers voted 55 percent to reject management’s contract offer. “By now...

Countries using high-fructose corn syrup have diabetes rates 20 percent higher than countries that do not, a new international analysis finds. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in national food supplies around the world might help explain the rising rates of type 2 diabetes around the world, researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford report in the journal Global Public Health. After studying 42 countries, researchers found that those that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than those that did not use HFCS, suggesting an association with diabetes independent...

<p>And that, economists say, may come down to one sweet little word: sugar.</p> <p>Since 1934, Congress has supported tariffs that benefit primarily a few handful of powerful Florida families while forcing US confectioners to pay nearly twice the global market price for sugar.</p>

ORBE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Nestle SA and General Mills Inc will cut sugar and salt in the children's breakfast cereals they jointly market outside North America, the latest attempt by major food companies to respond to health concerns. The two have been in a joint venture since 1990 to sell Nestle-brand cereals such as Cheerios in more than 140 countries outside the United States and Canada, markets which account for about half total global cereal sales of some $25 billion. They say they will reformulate 20 cereal brands popular with children and teenagers by 2015, boosting wholegrains and calcium and...

What a sweet cosmic find! Sugar molecules have been found in the gas surrounding a young sun-like star, suggesting that some of the building blocks of life may actually be present even as alien planets are stillforming in the system.

The head of the world's largest food producer believes high prices are due to the growing of crops for biofuels."The time of cheap food prices is over," says Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. He is highly critical of the rise in the production of bio-diesel, saying this puts pressure on food supplies by using land and water that would otherwise be used to grow crops for human or animal consumption."If no food was used for fuel, the prices would come down again - that is very clear," he says. "We are now in a new world with a completely different level...

It’s not often conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, pro-growth conservative groups and the Teamsters agree on something. In fact, it’s almost unheard of.But when it comes to the federal government’s sugar program – one of the most egregious corporate welfare handouts in a long list of wasteful programs – these strange bedfellows have found common ground.For years, the federal government has kept the price of sugar high by capping domestic production, imposing a de facto government price floor, and mandating that USDA buy excess sugar to sell to ethanol producers at a loss. The U.S. government also places exorbitant...

The basic case against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest crusade, to outlaw the sale of extra- large sugared soft drinks, is Libertarianism 101: In a free country, people should have the right to do what they want, even if it’s bad for them. The major exceptions and complications to this basic principle don’t seem to apply. Unlike secondhand smoke, my consumption of a Pepsi does no direct harm to anyone else. Unlike marijuana, sugary drinks have a perfectly adequate and legal substitute: sugar-free drinks. (Even if you can tell the difference between Coke and Diet Coke, you can’t claim...

he conglomerate's child-focused radio stations and websites will also launch strict standards for food ads, which CEO Bob Iger is expected to unveil with first lady Michelle Obama. Disney on Tuesday will unveil plans to keep junk food ads off its child-focused TV networks, radio stations and web sites, The New York Times reported.

Mr. Bloomberg is a man of many talents. He's a billionaire after all. And although we aren't supposed to like rich people anymore we can certainly infer from his wealth that he is smart, right? Plus, he was clever enough to secure a third term as mayor in a city with a two term limit. Wow. So when he added Gothem's top nanny to his notable achievements I took notice. His most recent ban on sixteen ounce sugary soft drinks and coffee was declared, Mr. Bloomberg assures us, because he is very concerned about obesity and its growing affects on...

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle —...

A Department of Defense official tells CNN's Barbara Starr that a search of the hotel room found Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo had enough to make two bombs. The ingredients included gunpowder, shotgun shells, a pressure cooker, 18 pounds of sugar used to enhance the explosion and Christmas lights to be used as a timer. At the surplus store Abdo bought a uniform and asked to have Fort Hood patches sewn on.

Researchers have just reported that among the list of bodily ills that fructose contributes to, it may also "make you dumb." Luckily, eating a diet rich in the healthy omega-3 fatty acids seems to counteract this phenomenon. The rats also had important differences in how their bodies - and brains - were metabolizing sugar and functioning overall. The rats who had eaten diets without omega-3s had higher triglyceride levels as well as higher glucose and insulin levels. In fact the rats seemed to enter a state of insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes), but this too was reversed by the...

The representative for a district with higher-than-average rates of obesity-related conditions will return from recess a week from Monday to reintroduce her Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) will say on the House floor, according to prepared remarks, that her bill is intended to tackle a health problem “that cannot be remedied through the health care system alone.” The LIFE Act would give the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $25 million “for a coordinated national effort to reverse increasingly sedentary lifestyles and diets that are high in fat and sugar.” That...

Ready to say goodbye to a sliver of your Snickers? And how about a slightly slimmer Mars bar? By the end of 2013, chocolate-maker Mars says all of its chocolate bars will be under — or right at — the 250-calorie mark. With all the fixation on our civilization's expanding waistlines, it's not that there are bad foods, just big foods. That means you won't be seeing lower-calorie chocolate or caramel — just less of it. And the company says it wants to be an industry leader, helping its customers enjoy "responsible snacking." It sort of reminds me of beer...