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A new report issued by the Environmental Working Group calculates the carbon footprint of meats, cheeses, and a smattering of other foods. The results are good news for those who avoid red meat as well as vegans. They are not good news for vegetarian cheese lovers like this blogger. Special shout-out to those of you who eat baby sheep: You suck! Lamb is the single most carbon-intensive meat, .. (beef 2nd) Cheese comes out ahead of pork, farmed salmon, chicken and canned tuna. .. What it means, in practical terms: -Eating one less burger a week, is like driving 320...

Meat on the grill is as much a part of the Fourth of July as fireworks and American flags. But it is also reputed to increase cancer risk in unsuspecting patriots, thanks in part to chemical compounds formed when meats containing muscle — including beef, pork, poultry and fish — are cooked at very high temperatures. The class of chemicals known as heterocyclic amines, or HCAs for short, were first discovered in the 1970s by Japanese scientists, who noted that compounds in the charred parts of cooked fish and meat were capable of damaging cellular and bacterial DNA in test...

This week, state Sen. Michael Rubio will introduce legislation that would prohibit food stamps from being used to purchase "junk food" or prepared meals at fast-food restaurants. "The question is what should we be using taxpayer funds to purchase," the Bakersfield Democrat said Tuesday. "In my opinion, we should be focusing on what people need, not what they want." Those needs include foods found in the traditional food pyramid, he said, including breads and cereals, meats, beans, nuts, dairy products and other protein sources, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Rubio's idea is not yet an official Senate bill. But...

Children who regularly eat cured meats like bacon and hot dogs may have a heightened risk of leukemia, while vegetables and soy products may help protect against cancer, a new study suggests. Researchers found that among 515 Taiwanese children and teenagers with and without acute leukemia, those who ate cured meats and fish more than once a week had a 74 percent higher risk of leukemia than those who rarely ate these foods. On the other hand, kids who often ate vegetables and soy products, like tofu, had about half the leukemia risk of their peers who shunned vegetables and...

As cat owners know, their feline friend would much rather chase and eat a live mouse than snack on the chocolate equivalent, and now researchers have discovered the reason – cats are simply unable to taste sweet things. An examination of feline genetics has shown a significant defect in one of the genes that codes for part of the sweet taste receptor. This “huge deletion” of 247 base pairs in the gene that codes for the T1R2 protein – one of two proteins that make up the sweet taste receptor in mammals – has left cats unable to detect sweet-tasting...