Saturday, March 08, 2014

Saturday Stories: Formaldehyde, Viruses, and Facts up Front

Tara Haelle in Slate wonders whether or not our worries about formaldehyde are justified.

Carl Zimmer in the New York Times describes the resurrection of a 30,000 year old, never before seen, virus (I found this story terrifying even though the virus only infects amoeba).

Marion Nestle skewers the food industry's new commitment to fronts of packages.

And if you wanted to help a researcher out one has asked me to post the following request:
Calling all health care practitioners with an interest in paediatric healthcare! Researchers at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and University of Toronto are looking for input from health care practitioners through a short, anonymous online survey to share your feedback and opinion on the development of a new health screening tool for children: The Healthy Body Scorecard. It aims to address some of the limitations associated with the use of Body Mass Index (BMI) alone and provide a user-friendly tool that will help identify the heath needs of children aged 2-18.

Please follow this link for more information and the survey
[And if you don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook want to mention that my book The Diet Fix, as one of Indigo's online top 50 bestsellers, is currently 50% off (click here to order if you'd like), and here's a segment I did with Global's The Morning Show where I explain how I don't think our struggles with weight have to do with a lack of willpower. And here's a post I wrote from Tom Venuto's blog Burn the Fat on perception vs. reality when it comes to food diaries.]