Free Republic

<p>After 40 years of dairy farming, I sold my herd of cows this summer. The herd had been in my family since 1904; I know all 45 cows by name. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take over our farm — who would? Dairy farming is little more than hard work and possible economic suicide.</p>

Last week, many newspapers ran some version of a Washington Post piece entitled “The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol.” Reporter Peter Whoriskey lavishes more than 1800 words on a story that is well-summarized in his first two paragraphs: The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption. The group’s finding that cholesterol in the diet need no longer be considered a “nutrient of concern” stands in contrast to the committee’s findings five years ago,...

New research links drinking lowfat milk to lower risk for heart disease Grabbing as little as one glass of lowfat or fat free milk could help protect your heart, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that adults who had at least one serving of lowfat milk or milk products each day had 37 percent lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no lowfat milk. To determine heart disease risk, researchers from several universities in the United States and Norway measured the...

Boris Johnson was embroiled in an astonishing row last night after he attacked the TV chef Jamie Oliver and his campaign for healthier school dinners. The shadow higher education minister criticised Oliver's crusade days after David Cameron endorsed the chef's campaign. Mr Johnson even offered support to the mothers in Yorkshire who passed fast food to their children through the school fence in protest at the introduction of "over-priced, low-fat rubbish" in the school canteen. "I say let people eat what they like. Why shouldn't they push pies through the railings?" Mr Johnson told a fringe meeting in Bournemouth. "I...

More than 60 bison are roaming about 10,000 acres in the Bryson Hesperia area on the southern edge of Monterey County, after breaking loose from a truck last week. Members of the Chumash Indian tribe were transporting the bison from South Dakota to a wilderness preserve on Bryson Hesperia Road northwest of Lake Nacimiento. The truck they were traveling in got stuck in the mud. After trying to lighten the truck by letting some bison off, the entire herd let loose. So far, six have been corralled and at least two shot, said Maiwo Agdeppa, who was helping transport the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A relatively high amount of fat in the diet may be a boon to a healthy person's cholesterol levels, a small study suggests. On the other hand, limiting fat intake too much could have the opposite effect. Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that when 11 healthy but sedentary adults followed a very low-fat diet (19 percent of calories from fat) for three weeks, they saw a drop in their HDL cholesterol -- the "good" cholesterol believed to protect against heart disease. In contrast, three weeks on a diet that...

If you're counting carbs -- and you know who you are -- there's a product for you. About a dozen new ones a week, in fact. From muffins to margaritas, food and beverage companies are rolling out a buffet of reduced-carbohydrate products to keep up with America's latest diet obsession. "This is a breakout year. We've definitely reached the craze point," said Tom Vierhile, executive editor of Productscan Online, a newsletter that tracks new products. More than 600 reduced-carbohydrate items have cropped up this year, double the number launched in recent years, Vierhile said. Supermarket experts say it's just the...

Mainstream nutritional science has demonized dietary fat, yet 50 years and hundreds of millions of dollars of research have failed to prove that eating a low-fat diet will help you live longer When the U.S. Surgeon General's Office set off in 1988 to write the definitive report on the dangers of dietary fat, the scientific task appeared straightforward. Four years earlier, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had begun advising every American old enough to walk to restrict fat intake, and the president of the American Heart Association (AHA) had told Time magazine that if everyone went along, "we will...

Looking for something healthy and non-fattening for your evening meal? How about a nice porterhouse steak, which is 50-50 fat and protein? It's a suggestion that comes about as close to heresy as we get these days, but there is increasing evidence that a low-fat diet is not the panacea we have been promised. For the past 30 years such a diet has been officially promoted, on both sides of the Atlantic, as the route to plaque-free arteries and a slim figure. A message that has propelled 15,000 low-fat products on to American supermarket shelves.However, the campaign has had no...