Cutting back on salt is smart and safe, no matter what the New York Times says. In an editorial and an article, the Times misrepresented the findings of a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Here's what the Times got wrong:

The...

Everyone knows undercooked meat can be a risky proposition. For most Americans, a case of foodborne illness is a mild case of nausea or diarrhea that passes in a few days. Few of the 48 million people who are infected each year from tainted foods seek medical attention....

If you want to understand the soda industry today, take a look back to the tobacco industry in the 1990s. Under siege 20 years ago, Philip Morris' corporate affairs division issued an internal "Five-Year Plan," which surveyed a landscape of "unabated activism," more regulation, and "deteriorating" attitudes about...

When I first began my work on food safety and nutrition in 1970, people knew that tasty, familiar white sugar was just "junk" and "empty calories." Sugar was derided because it was devoid of vitamins and minerals and it promoted tooth decay.

But recent studies have begun to demonstrate...

Everyone who talks, writes, or preaches about nutrition puts fruits and vegetables at the pinnacle of goodness. While they may lack magical powers, most are excellent sources of potassium (which helps lower blood pressure), vitamins (like A and C), fiber (which helps the digestive system run smoothly), and other nutrients....

SANTE - Les nutritionnistes du Center for Science in the Public Interest (Centre pour la science dans l'intérêt public) effectuent sans relâche le tour des chaînes de restauration américaine à la recherche de repas aux teneurs en calories, graisses saturées, sodium ou sucres ajoutés incroyablement élevées. Nos études...

SANTE - Les nutritionnistes du Center for Science in the Public Interest (Centre pour la science dans l'intérêt public) effectuent sans relâche le tour des chaînes de restauration américaine à la recherche de repas aux teneurs en calories, graisses saturées, sodium ou sucres ajoutés incroyablement élevées. Nos études...

Nutritionists here at the Center for Science in the Public Interest are always visiting America's chain restaurants to look for examples of meals that have surprisingly high levels of calories, saturated fat, sodium, or added sugar. Our studies of the nutritional quality of movie theater popcorn, steakhouse fare, and Chinese...

Most people who are concerned about too much sodium -- mostly from salt -- in the diet probably think that it poses a risk only to grown ups, or perhaps only senior citizens. But one reason that parents of even young children should be concerned about salty foods is that...

Soda is still just sugar water despite added vitamins.

Big Soda must know it has a public relations problem on its hands. With study after study making plainer the links between sugary-drink consumption and obesity, the industry is under siege. Reducing soda consumption is...

As President Obama prepares for his second term, he should finish the food policy work he started in his first.

Early in what we can now call his "first" term, President Barack Obama carved out an ambitious agenda on food policy. In January 2011, the President signed the FDA Food...

When it comes to making people feel good about a brand, no one does it more skillfully than Coca-Cola. Picture a perfectly multicultural, sun-dappled chorus wanting to teach the world to sing. Or "Mean Joe Green" tossing his jersey to a young boy who offered him a Coke....

The new, healthier school meals being served to America's school-aged children are filled with more (and more varied) vegetables, fruit, and whole grains, and less salt, saturated fat, and trans fat. The standards set calorie maximums for the first time and lower calorie minimums to better ensure that school meals...

The world's leading health authorities -- from the American Heart Association to the World Health Organization -- have urged people to cut back on salt (sodium). And several experts have estimated that if Americans reduced their sodium consumption by half, that would save upward of 100,000 lives and billions of...

The Olympic Summer Games -- the quadrennial sports and advertising extravaganza -- are now underway. Once again, we'll be thrilled (and perhaps even inspired) by the graceful gymnasts, the lightning-fast sprinters, and the seemingly inexhaustible swimmers.

Less thrilling is the endless drumbeat of ads from long-time sponsors

It was in 1970, the year after Richard Nixon became president, that I came to Washington to be a new Nader's Raider. On my first day at work, Ralph Nader asked me to research and write a book about food additives. I had no idea what food additives were, let...

Pink slime was a wake-up call.

Americans were mortified to see news footage of slabs of fat traveling along a conveyer belt, destined for a spin in a centrifuge and a spritz of ammonia before being mixed into fatty ground beef. The resulting "lean finely-textured beef" (the euphemism for the...

Kellogg's probably wouldn't sell a lot of Eggo waffles of any variety if their labels proclaimed that the waffles were "made with water" and "mostly white flour." Yet water and white flour are the top two ingredients in Eggo Nutrigrain Whole Wheat Waffles, whose labels tout their "whole grain" and...

When in 2006 new federal regulations required a line for trans fat on Nutrition Facts labels, food manufacturers raced to reduce or eliminate partially hydrogenated oil -- the source of that nasty fat -- from their pie crusts, pastries, microwave popcorns, frozen French fries and other foods. Most big restaurant...

Packing a reasonably nutritious school lunch -- a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, say, plus a sliced orange and a carton of milk (lowfat with an ice pack) -- doesn't have to take a lot of time. But Americans love saving time almost as much as...