Category: Science

Diet & Health

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Medical evidence is growing
that iron-rich red meat contributes at
much to heart disease as cholesterol.
“Avoiding meat may be prudent,”
Newsweek medical reporters Geoffrey
Cowley and Mary Hager concluded after
reviewing recent studies on the topic in the
September 21 issue.
Trans-fatty acids that increase
the harmful effects of cholesterol com-
monly result from cooking with solid or
semi-solid margarines and shortenings,
suggests a new USDA study whose pre-
liminary findings were made public
October 7. Avoiding cholesterol is still a
good idea, but so is avoiding partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils if you are in a
high-risk bracket for heart disease. Use
whole oils instead––”The softer, the bet-
ter,” as Marian Burros puts it.

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Diet & Health

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* The USDA school lunch subsidy pro-
gram is functioning as a dump for choles-
terol-laden meat and dairy products, the con-
sumer group Public Voice for Food and
Health Policy charged September 16.
Approximately 20% of each of the 4.1 billion
school lunches served in 1991 consisted of
free food supplied by the USDA—but cheese
and butter made up a third of the $10.2 billion
total, almost all of the potatoes had fat added,
and only 3.4% of the fruit and vegetables
were fresh. The Public Voice report was
endorsed by American School Food Service
Association spokesman Kevin Dando, who
agreed, “There’s entirely too much butter
available, and schools would like to have
more fresh fruits and vegetables.” From 1979
through 1991, the USDA spent $7.2 billion to
supply schools with meat and dairy products,
but spent just $2 billion on fruits, vegetables,
and grains.

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Animal Health

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Over a year and a half after the mid-
Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic hit south-
eastern Connecticut and was expected to
spread throughout New England, confirmed
outbreaks have yet to hit Massachusetts,
Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. All
four states have had only the usual handful of
rabies cases, mostly involving bats and foxes.
Bat rabies has been endemic in parts of New
England for decades, while outbreaks of fox
rabies have been sporadic along the Canadian
border at least since the 1950s. While some
rabid raccoons have been found in northern
New England during the past year, they are
not known to have carried the mid-Atlantic
strain of the disease, and there is no evidence
that the forms they appeared to have are wide-
ly distributed in the raccoon population.

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CHILDREN & ANIMALS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Representatives of about 50 animal
protection and child protectionorganiza-
tions met September 14 and 15 in Washington
D.C. under the auspices of the American
Humane Association to discuss common prob-
lems and opportunities to seek solutions
together. We were there; watch for a full
report in the November issue of ANIMAL
PEOPLE.
* “Until recently,” charges the current
edition of the newsletter Notes From The
Green World, “the image of the abandoned
Latin American child was of a ragged child
sleeping in a doorway. Today the image is of
a body, lacerated and dumped in a city slum,”
especially in Brazil, where death squads hired
by local merchants torture and exterminate
suspected thieves with perhaps more impunity
than if they shot stray dogs. Editor Walter
Miale cites extensive documentation of his
charges, including by Amnesty International.

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