Health | Grist

Weight of the world

No healthcare reform without food-system reform 4
Posted 2 days, 13 hours ago
Overweight and obesity rates continue to rise, pushed up by a tsunami of cheap calories. Time to reform the food system?
Ask Umbra’s video advice on sunscreen 1
Posted 4 days, 2 hours ago
More sin taxes, please

USDA food-desert report points to need for a soda tax 4
Posted 1 week ago
The USDA's recent report on "food deserts" made the the food-politics blogospere bloom with opinions on how to improve low-income people's diets. Tom Laskawy adds his.
Survey Says!

Consumers no longer want to be kept in the dark about food 3
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago
A new survey came out indicating that (surprise, surprise) only 20% of Americans trust food companies to develop and sell food products that are safe and healthy." But there was some far more interesting data buried in this survey.
EPA chief on environmental justice, working for Obama, and more 0
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago
Action Jackson

EPA chief Lisa Jackson on mountaintop removal, climate legislation, toxics, and more 3
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago
The EPA can't stop mountaintop-removal mining under current law, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tells Grist. In an exclusive interview, she also talks about climate legislation, toxics, environmental justice, and what it's like to be part of Obama's "green Cabinet." Watch the video and read the highlights.
Murder by breath

Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of my friend John Soley 0
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago
After a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many of his neighbors were poisoned by pollution, and that the perpetrators should be held to account.
Coal is the enemy of West Virginia 3
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago
I wrote a slightly snotty post about West Virginia recently, making the point that dependence on coal has produced more misery than benefit for West Virginians. And now there's empirical data to back that up.
Reality bites

UPDATED: Never mind! Lead levels in White House soil “ridiculously low” for an urban garden 0
Posted 2 weeks ago
Back when First Lady Michelle Obama planted her garden, the soil tested for slightly elevated lead levels -- not necessarily dangerous, but quite a bit higher than the amount considered the "normal" background soil lead level of 10 parts per million.
Sparkling Wit

Ask Umbra on rinse aids 7
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago
Your dishwasher requires a rinse aid -- but what the heck is in that thing, and is there an eco-alternative? Umbra offers a cascade of advice.
Desert Blooms

NYC sends veggie carts to underserved areas—and they’re a hit 6
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago
New York City took a baby step recently towards a state role in distributing healthy food. It significantly expanded a program to bring fruit and vegetable "carts" to low-income neighborhoods that good food options -- so-called "food deserts." And if the early response is any indication, the program looks to be a rip-roaring success.
Ask Umbra’s video advice on showering 10
Posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago
AN INCONSUPERSIZEMENT TRUTH

Globesity: How climate change and obesity draw from the same roots 7
Posted 3 weeks ago
You've heard all the reasons before: We drive too much. We eat too much meat and processed food. We spend too much time with plugged-in devices -- computers, TVs, air conditioners. Climate change, right? Half right. We're really talking about the the worldwide rise in obesity.
Do dirty coal plants make us more vulnerable to swine flu? 3
Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago
Scientists have discovered that exposure to a common pollutant may make people more likely to experience severe symptoms from swine flu -- and it's a pollutant emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities.
Spotlight on Colorado

The return of the uranium boom? 2
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago
The people of Paradox Valley in western Colorado may soon have a unique opportunity to rediscover exactly what impact uranium mining and refining can have.
The little engine that probably couldn't

Will health care eclipse climate in Congress this year? 9
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago
Halfway through the second debate of last fall's presidential campaign, moderator Tom Brokaw asked the candidates what their top priority would be if elected. McCain hemmed and hawed, but Obama answered in plain language: energy is "priority No. 1" and health care "priority No. 2." Fast forward. In an NYT Magazine piece this weekend on the legislative strategy driving Obama's presidency, Sen. Max Baucus recalls a flight on Air Force One in which Obama "just turned to me and said, 'This is my No. 1 issue.'" That issue? Health care.

What a difference a little time in office makes.
Good Fish, Bad Fish

Is your favorite seafood unhealthy for the planet? 4
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago
A new Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Natural Resources Defense Council can help me -- and you -- make better choices about what we eat. It provides seven basic guidelines to follow when shopping for seafood or ordering at a restaurant, as well as specific advice about America's five favorite types of seafood, from shrimp to tuna to fish sticks.
Spare Tires

Food industry and longer commutes are making us fat 0
Posted 4 weeks, 1 day ago
Certainly there are systems issues that conspire against us when we try to make the right decision about food, including the food industry. Blaming the food industry might be an easy thing to do. But a combination of policies that improve what we eat and encourage alternative transportation is the recipe we need to follow.
Hogging Our Drugs

Anti-CAFO ads running in DC Metro 0
Posted 1 month ago
Come Fry With Me

A sizzling test of seven eco-sunscreen brands 3
Posted 1 month ago
You know you need protection from the sun's rays, and you don't want a product that will harm you or the planet. So what should you slather on? Grist staffers expose their flesh to help you figure it out.