A government-backed meal delivery service for people on Medicaid and Medicare is getting national attention — but not all of it is positive. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently praised Mom’s Meals, a company that sends prepackaged meals to people who are older or living with illnesses like cancer or diabetes, the Associated Press reported. “This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,” Kennedy said in a video posted on X. He toured the company’s Oklahoma facility last week and thanked them for providing meals “without additives.” But experts say that’s not entirely true. An Associated Press investigation found that many of Mom’s Meals’ offerings are highly processed and contain ingredients that wouldn’t be found in a home kitchen. Marion Nestle, a nutrition expert at New York University, reviewed the menu, including nutrition labels and ingredients. Some meals — like chicken bacon ranch pasta or French toast sticks with ham — were high in salt, sugar or saturated fat, Nestle said. “It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,” she said. “What’s so sad is that they don’t have to be this way,” Nestle added. “Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course…  read on >  read on >

A government-backed meal delivery service for people on Medicaid and Medicare is getting national attention — but not all of it is positive. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently praised Mom’s Meals, a company that sends prepackaged meals to people who are older or living with illnesses like cancer or diabetes, the Associated Press reported. “This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,” Kennedy said in a video posted on X. He toured the company’s Oklahoma facility last week and thanked them for providing meals “without additives.” But experts say that’s not entirely true. An Associated Press investigation found that many of Mom’s Meals’ offerings are highly processed and contain ingredients that wouldn’t be found in a home kitchen. Marion Nestle, a nutrition expert at New York University, reviewed the menu, including nutrition labels and ingredients. Some meals — like chicken bacon ranch pasta or French toast sticks with ham — were high in salt, sugar or saturated fat, Nestle said. “It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,” she said. “What’s so sad is that they don’t have to be this way,” Nestle added. “Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course…  read on >  read on >

Tens of thousands of people suffer needless heart attacks and strokes every year because they aren’t taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, a new study says. More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported June 30 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Nearly half of Americans (47%) who’ve never had a heart attack or stroke are eligible to take statins under U.S. guidelines, researchers found. But fewer than a quarter (23%) of them have been prescribed the life-saving drugs, results show. A substantial number of heart attack or stroke survivors also aren’t taking the drugs, even though all are eligible for them under U.S. guidelines, researchers said. “These results add to a growing body of evidence that there are important shortcomings in the quality of care for common and costly chronic diseases such as high cholesterol, and that addressing those shortcomings would yield major public health benefits,” lead researcher Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 U.S. adults between 40 and 75 years of age who took part in an annual U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…  read on >  read on >

Tens of thousands of people suffer needless heart attacks and strokes every year because they aren’t taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, a new study says. More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported June 30 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Nearly half of Americans (47%) who’ve never had a heart attack or stroke are eligible to take statins under U.S. guidelines, researchers found. But fewer than a quarter (23%) of them have been prescribed the life-saving drugs, results show. A substantial number of heart attack or stroke survivors also aren’t taking the drugs, even though all are eligible for them under U.S. guidelines, researchers said. “These results add to a growing body of evidence that there are important shortcomings in the quality of care for common and costly chronic diseases such as high cholesterol, and that addressing those shortcomings would yield major public health benefits,” lead researcher Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 U.S. adults between 40 and 75 years of age who took part in an annual U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…  read on >  read on >

Gaiser’s European Style Provisions Inc. is recalling almost 150,000 pounds of ready-to-eat bologna due to mislabeling. The recalled lunch meats contain meat or poultry source materials that are not listed on the product labels, CBS News reports. The bologna was sold under various names and labels and was produced between March 20 and June 20 of this year. They include: Vacuum-packed packages of “FAMILY TREE BOLOGNA VEAL” (containing undeclared pork) Plastic-wrapped packages of “BABUSHKA’S RECIPE CHICKEN BOLOGNA” (undeclared pork) Plastic-wrapped packages of “FANCY BOLOGNA” (undeclared beef and chicken) Vacuum-packed packages of “GAISERS RUSSIAN BRAND DOKTORSKAYA BOLOGNA” (undeclared beef) Plastic-wrapped packages of “GAISERS BOLOGNA VEAL” (undeclared chicken and pork) Plastic-wrapped packages of “GAISERS TURKEY BOLOGNA” (undeclared chicken and pork) Plastic-wrapped packages of “CHICKEN BOLOGNA KYPOYKA PABA” (undeclared pork) These items were distributed from the Union, N.J., company to nationwide wholesale and retail locations and have establishment number “EST. 5385” inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection mark on the labels. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) received a complaint through a hotline and determined that the products contained source materials that were not declared on the label. The group does not anticipate any adverse health effects if the products are consumed, and there haven’t been any confirmed reports of illness. Still, officials are urging the public not to consume the recalled products. These products should be thrown away or…  read on >  read on >

Many kids are spending a lot of unnecessary time under observation in a hospital following a sudden allergic emergency, a new study concludes. About 17% of kids are admitted for overnight observation following a scary allergic reaction to food, medicine or insect bites, researchers reported.  But 95% of children treated for allergic reactions can be safely discharged within two hours after receiving a dose of epinephrine, according to results published in The Lancet: Child and Adolescent Health. That number rises to 98% if doctors err on the side of caution and keep kids under observation for four hours, researchers found. “For most patients, we are probably observing them too long,” said researcher Dr. Kenneth Michelson, a pediatric emergency specialist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “This might sound minor, but if you brought your toddler in for a scary allergic reaction, it’s the difference between going home at 11 p.m. versus going home at 1 a.m. or 3 a.m.,” he said in a news release. “Our finding gives us more confidence that after a couple of hours, if symptoms are improving in specific ways, we can probably send the child home.” Most kids who’d had an allergic reaction can be routinely treated with an epinephrine jab and sent home, researchers said in background notes. However, about 5% experience a “biphasic reaction,”…  read on >  read on >