Nutrition News Briefs

• Researchers at the General Hospital of Luxembourg in Belgium found that about 60% of migraine sufferers taking 400 milligrams of vitamin B2 experienced half the usual number of headaches, compared with 15% of the placebo group. The scientists said that vitamin B2 treatment could prove as effective as drug treatments, but with fewer side effects.
• Cochineal, also called carmine, is a common red dye used as a coloring agent in yogurt, fruit drinks, artificial shrimp or crab, chewable vitamins and cosmetics. Because it is made from dried bugs, and, therefore, comes from a natural source, its presence in products does not require notification on the label. This lack of labeling is unfortunate, since allergists at the University of Michigan warn that cochineal may cause allergic reactions.
• Health officials recommend that women take 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of calcium a day, yet supplementing at this level may result in the loss of zinc. Experts recommend that women also increase their zinc intake when taking calcium supplements.
• The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) devotes less than one-tenth of one percent of its research budget to organic farming. Out of 30,000 projects in the agency's database, only 34 are concerned specifically with organic agriculture.
• In a Finnish study of thousands of smokers, fifty milligrams of Vitamin E taken daily was found to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by a third, and mortality by 41%.
• At one time, the FDA required that irradiated foods be "prominently and conspicuously" labeled as such, with the radura emblem also on the label. As a result of pressure from the food industry, however, the radura is no longer required, and the irradiation disclosure can be set in very tiny print so as to be almost unnoticeable.

Manufacturers had complained to the FDA that the old labeling requirement rendered irradiated foods "virtually unmarketable." [Editor: In other words, if people knew what we were selling them, they wouldn't buy it, so let's try to slip it by them.]   Based on information in: Neurology, Feb 1998; Health, Mar 1998; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jun 1997; Acres USA, Mar 1998; The New York Times, 3-18-98; "Meat Monopolies" 1998 (Food & Water Special Report)