Steak, hamburgers, beef ribs and hot dogs are bad for the aging brain. Folks who eat lots of red and processed meat are more likely to develop dementia, researchers reported. Eating more than one serving of red meat a day — 3 ounces, about the size of a bar of soap — is associated with a 16% increased risk of cognitive decline, researchers found. And eating more than a daily quarter-serving of processed red meat — bacon, sausage, hot dogs and the like — increased dementia risk by 13% and risk of cognitive decline by 14%. What’s more, people’s brains appear to age faster with every additional serving of red meat they eat daily. On the other hand, replacing red meat with nuts and legumes reduced risk of early brain aging, results show. “Dietary guidelines tend to focus on reducing risks of chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes, while cognitive health is less frequently discussed, despite being linked to these diseases,” senior researcher Dr. Daniel Wang with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a news release from the school. “We hope our results encourage greater consideration of the connection between diet and brain health,” Wang said. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 134,000 nurses and health professionals participating…  read on >  read on >

Agency revokes previous authorization for color additive to be used in food and ingested drugs
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The words “calm down” are worse than unhelpful — they actually can increase blood pressure among new mothers of color, a study has found. Gender-based racism through such microaggressions significantly increased a new mom’s blood pressure, compared to women not subjected to these sort of comments, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 9 in the journal Hypertension. And effects on blood pressure were even more pronounced among women living in areas with high levels of structural racism. “It is well-known that Black, Hispanic and South Asian women experience microaggressions during health care. It is not as well known whether these microaggressions may have an association with higher blood pressure,” lead researcher Teresa Janevic, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said in a news release from the college. For the study, researchers asked nearly 400 women of color who gave birth at four hospitals in Philadelphia and New York City about the microaggressions they faced during their care. The women ranted in age from 16 to 46, with about 43% between 20 and 29. Examples included “I have been disrespected,” “Someone told me to calm down,” and “Someone accused me of being angry when speaking assertively.” Nearly two in five women (38%) reported at least one instance of microaggression during their pregnancy care, results show.…  read on >  read on >

Three GLP-1 drugs are best at helping obese and overweight people drop weight, including one that hasn’t yet been approved for that purpose. A new evidence review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that the widely-known drugs tirzepatide (Zepbound) and semaglutide (Wegovy) are both safe and effective at helping the obese shed pounds. However, a third drug also FDA-approved for weight loss, liraglutide (Saxenda), didn’t work as well as the others, researchers found after reviewing data from dozens of clinical trials. The review also found that a GLP-1 drug still in development, called retatrutide, might be more effective than either Zepbound or Wegovy. “We found that, of the 12 GLP-1 (drugs) identified by our search, the greatest mean body weight reduction was reported in randomized controlled trials of retatrutide, tirzepatide, and semaglutide,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Mark Eisenberg, a professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. GLP-1 drugs, initially developed to treat diabetes, help people lose weight by slowing digestion in the stomach and sending signals to the brain indicating that a person has eaten enough and feels full. The drugs mimic a hormone secreted by the small intestine when people eat food. For the new evidence review, researchers analyzed data from 26 previous clinical trials of the drugs, involving nearly 15,500 participants. Compared to placebo, the data…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) released the first-ever guidelines for levels of lead in processed baby foods this week. However, many health and safety advocates say they are not satisfied with the guidance. Under the FDA’s new guidelines, baby food manufacturers should have no more than 10 parts per billion of lead in baby yogurts, custards, puddings, single-ingredient meats, processed fruits and vegetables, and mixtures of fruits, vegetables, grains and meat. Yet the new guidance does not cover many other products, such as infant formula, beverages, or snack foods like puffs and teething biscuits. “Nearly all baby foods on the market already comply with these limits,” Jane Houlihan, research director of Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), told CNN. HBBF is a coalition of advocates committed to reducing babies’ exposures to neurotoxic chemicals. Houlihan said the newly released FDA guidelines were ineffective — not to mention unenforceable. In 2019, HBBF released a report that found toxic metals in 95% of baby foods randomly pulled off supermarket shelves. It led to a congressional investigation that discovered some baby food ingredients contain hundreds of parts per billion of dangerous metals, according to internal documents provided by major baby food manufacturers. “As it stands, the new lead limits for commercial baby foods would reduce children’s total dietary lead exposure by less than 4% — a negligible improvement,”…  read on >  read on >