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Red Meat Consumption and Mortality

March 13, 2012 Comments off

Red Meat Consumption and Mortality
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine

Background
Red meat consumption has been associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases. However, its relationship with mortality remains uncertain.

Methods
We prospectively observed 37 698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2008) and 83 644 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1980-2008) who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer at baseline. Diet was assessed by validated food frequency questionnaires and updated every 4 years.

Results
We documented 23 926 deaths (including 5910 CVD and 9464 cancer deaths) during 2.96 million person-years of follow-up. After multivariate adjustment for major lifestyle and dietary risk factors, the pooled hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI) of total mortality for a 1-serving-per-day increase was 1.13 (1.07-1.20) for unprocessed red meat and 1.20 (1.15-1.24) for processed red meat. The corresponding HRs (95% CIs) were 1.18 (1.13-1.23) and 1.21 (1.13-1.31) for CVD mortality and 1.10 (1.06-1.14) and 1.16 (1.09-1.23) for cancer mortality. We estimated that substitutions of 1 serving per day of other foods (including fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy, and whole grains) for 1 serving per day of red meat were associated with a 7% to 19% lower mortality risk. We also estimated that 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% in women in these cohorts could be prevented at the end of follow-up if all the individuals consumed fewer than 0.5 servings per day (approximately 42 g/d) of red meat.

Conclusions
Red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, CVD, and cancer mortality. Substitution of other healthy protein sources for red meat is associated with a lower mortality risk.

Categories: Archives of Internal Medicine, cancer, cardiovascular disease, documents in the news, Food & Water Watch, Health Affairs

A Closer Look at Catch Shares in the United States: The Gulf of Mexico

November 19, 2011 Comments off

A Closer Look at Catch Shares in the United States: The Gulf of Mexico
Source: Food & Water Watch
From press release:

On Wednesday, the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch released a report on the effects of catch share programs on Gulf of Mexico fisheries. Analyzing brand new federal government data, the report, entitled A Closer Look at Catch Shares in the United States: The Gulf of Mexico, reveals that Gulf fisheries managed under one controversial program have seen significant industry consolidation and job losses and that certain catch shares programs have failed to meet ecological goals. The report comes a day after congressional sponsors of a bill to continue a recently enacted ban on new catch share programs along the east coast and Gulf of Mexico confirmed that Congress had reached an agreement to kill the vote.

Under catch share programs, fishermen are assigned a certain amount of fish, or “shares”. This allotment is typically based on how much they have caught in the past. Fishermen who fish the fastest and hardest often receive more shares, with smaller fishermen receiving less or none at all. Like shares in the stock market, these shares can be bought or sold for profit by corporations and banks.

Once fish are turned into commodities under catch shares, the added costs of buying shares can push fishermen out of the fishery, either into bankruptcy or into other fisheries that aren’t under such a program.

In 2007, red snapper was the first fish to fall under a catch share program in the Gulf. According to Food & Water Watch’s report, this fishery has seen up to a 44 percent decrease in the number of participants due to its catch share program, resulting in a loss of as many as 1,017 and 1,695 jobs.

“Sadly, the traditional ‘ma and pop’ fishing operations that were once the backbone of Gulf Coast communities are a dying breed. The new costs of doing business under catch shares represent an increasing and untenable burden on small to mid-sized fishing operations,” said Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food & Water Watch.

Categories: Food & Water Watch, food and agriculture, government and politics, labor, political process

National Smart Seafood Guide 2011

August 10, 2011 Comments off

National Smart Seafood Guide 2011
Source: Food & Water Watch

We now include several invasive species in our Smart Seafood Guide! Invasive species are those that have been brought into an environment in which they are not native — either accidentally, or sometimes intentionally, to fix another problem. They are often hard to remove because they may not have natural predators in the regions where they’ve been introduced. Adding invasive species as a menu item may help to control their populations at less destructive levels. So enjoy some great cuisine and help the environment!

Categories: ecology, environment, Food & Water Watch, food and agriculture
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