Tag Archives: USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Subway Ditches Toxic Chemical Found in Yoga Mats. Still Widely Used, Though

After a public petition to ban azodicarbonamide, a chemical also found in yoga mats and shoe rubber, Subway has officially agreed to remove the toxin from their sandwich breads. This substance has been banned across the globe, but it’s still allowed in the U.S. and found in almost every fast food chain baked goods including Starbucks, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and Wendy’s.

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Azodicarbonamide is known to induce asthma, other respiratory symptoms, and skin sensitization in exposed workers and consumers. It is intended as a dough conditioner, but when baked can create the known carcinogen urethane.

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USDA Teams With Author Brian Wansink to Improve Lunches in Wichita Schools

Brian Wansink, author of the bestselling book “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” has been hired to help improve school lunches. Wansink, former director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and director of the food and brand lab at Cornell University, has long been successful at getting people to make healthier choices. His book focuses on how people make hundreds of decisions each day about food. His belief that people make different food choices based upon their environment has recently been put to trial in Wichita cafeterias and will be slowly moving nationwide. (more…)