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If you think that sugar is the unhealthiest thing you can eat, you're wrong. Apparently, the Worst Food on the Planet Award should actually go to soybean oil, suggests new findings published in the journal PLoS One. Setting up a sort of dietary cage match, researchers fed mice a series of diets each containing 40% fat. The fat in the first diet was primarily saturated and came from coconut oil, while the fat in the second diet was primarily unsaturated and came mostly from soybean oil. The researchers also fed mice two altered versions of the high-fat diets that also...

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday warned that pregnant women and children should not drink raw milk and said it supports a nationwide ban on the sale of raw milk because of the danger of bacterial illnesses. The group’s statement said it supports federal health authorities “in endorsing the consumption of only pasteurized milk and milk products for pregnant women, infants and children.” The academy also “endorses a ban on the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk and milk products throughout the United States, including the sale of certain raw milk cheeses, such as fresh cheese, soft cheeses and...

The latest battle in the raw milk wars broke out today in south-central Pennsylvania. A group of ten state police and agents from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) descended on the 100-acre Nature’s Sunlight Farm in Newville, and confiscated about $25,000 worth of raw milk products, along with packaging and equipment. Though Pennsylvania is supposedly one of the more liberal states with regard to raw milk distribution, allowing farmers with permits to sell it not only from their farms and in farmers markets, but also in retail establishments, farmers say the...

Don't even try to separate Chris Schlicht from her raw, unpasteurized milk. "You bet I've got raw milk!" Schlicht wrote in a recent e-mail message. "I can say that raw milk and home-raised meat saved my life." Before she moved to Gig Harbor, Wash., Schlicht says she was "sick, underweight and having an impossible time trying to get pregnant." Then she began drinking raw milk, planted a garden and started raising her own livestock for meat. "I gained weight and got pregnant in less than six months," she notes. "I've been drinking raw milk ever since." So do her husband...

Eating less fat late in life failed to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease among older women, disappointing news for those who expected greater benefits from a healthy diet. Even so, scientists say the results from the government study of 48,835 women don't mean dieters should just throw up their hands and eat cake. The eight-year study showed no difference in the rate of breast cancer, colon cancer and heart disease among those who ate lower-fat diets and those who didn't. The research involved postmenopausal women who either cut overall fat consumption and increased vegetables, fruits and grains,...

Eating veggie burgers and tofu to lower "bad" cholesterol may not help, a new review of soy's health benefits suggests. The American Heart Association reviewed 22 randomized trials comparing soy protein and the soy component isoflavone to milk or other proteins. The majority of the trials concluded soy led to an average decrease in LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels of just three per cent. "This reduction is very small relative to the large amount of soy protein tested in these studies, averaging 50 grams, about half the usual total daily protein intake," the committee wrote in the Jan. 17 online...

Fish diet 'brings a brighter baby' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 20/01/2006) Pregnant women who eat more fish, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, tend to have brighter, more sociable children, claim researchers. The amount of omega-3 helps to determine the child's intelligence, fine motor skills - the ability to manipulate small objects and hand and eye co-ordination - and the propensity to anti-social behaviour, says a study by Dr Joseph Hibbeln, of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.Omega-3 is found in oily fish like salmon The findings, which were presented to a meeting in London this week, show...