Parents say the new cereal, which looks the same as the peanut-less flavors, puts kids with peanut allergies at an enormous risk.
 Image from cheerios.com Here’s how you know kids’ allergies are out of control: when parents flip out at General Mills for debuting peanut butter flavored Cheerios. The Washington Post reports that parents across the country are terrified that the new cereal variety will cross-contaminate the other non-peanut flavors, and put their kids with peanut allergies at extreme risk. Their beef: that the new Cheerios flavor looks just like the other kinds, so kids with the potentially life-threatening allergies (and their parents, too) won’t be able to tell the difference once it’s out of the box. Parents are threatening a boycott of all Cheerios varieties if the issues isn’t remedied.
A General Mills spokesperson issued a statement reassuring parents that there would be no cross contamination and that the boxes of the new cereal would be clearly marked with an allergen listing. But parents say that’s not enough: what happens when two-year-old Suzie, who’s not allergic to peanuts, is walking around with a plastic baggie full of the peanut-flavored cereal, and Johnny, who’s extremely allergic, reaches in and helps himself to one?
It’s far from an absurd scenario. The Post references an incident just last week in which a Virginia first-grader died after eating a peanut offered to her by a friend on the playground. My own nephew, Luke, was rushed to the hospital last fall after his cousin gave him a Reese’s Pieces—one little piece.
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Tips from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness on healthy family meals
Food allergies can make the simple task of preparing dinner a stressful chore, especially in the midst of holiday get-togethers. On December 9th, tune into this free webinar on the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness website for gluten-free, dairy-free holiday recipes. Directed toward parents and educators, the interactive session is also meant to get kids involved in the cooking process. Host Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer of Kitchen Classroom 4 Kids will lead the seminar and answer questions. The event open to all, but still requires online registration.
Free, December 9th, 11:30 a.m.
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A majority report wanting to lose weight, but researchers say their actions suggest they don't know how. I'm not buying it.
Researchers at Temple University released the findings of a study this week which found that 14 percent of Philadelphia teenagers are obese. Three out of four report wanting to lose weight, but their actions—drinking soda, smoking, playing video games for hours a day—suggest just the opposite.
The Temple team, led by public health doctoral candidate Clare Lenhart, culled data from the nearly 44,000 local adolescents who participated in the Philadelphia Youth Risk Behavioral Survey. Girls, they discovered, were more likely to get 60 minutes of exercise a day; but the same group also reported drinking full-sugar soda (not diet) at least once a day. Boys who said they wanted to lose weight were more likely to report no daily physical activity, and they admitted to spending lots of time planted in front of video games.
“From a health education standpoint, finding out that three-quarters of students who are obese want to lose weight is exactly what we want,” said Lenhart in a statement. “But the behavior they’re engaging in is puzzling; it’s counterproductive to what they’re trying to do.”
The statement goes on to say that Lenhart “is encouraged that so many teens appear to be motivated to lose weight” and that “a more intensive line of questioning from health care providers could help.”
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Not the news you wanted to hear, I'm sure.
 • It’s hard to get a read on alcohol when it comes to health. Sometimes experts tell you it’s good for you, and sometimes they tell you it’s not. Today’s news falls in the latter category: The Wall Street Journal would like to remind us that as few as two drinks a day raises the risk for certain cancers, everything from breast to lung to liver to colon cancer. Men who drink at least three drinks a day up their odds of death by cancer by 41 percent; for women, two drinks a day raises it by 20 percent. Get more details over here.
• And now for some good news: A new study found that women with family members who carry the gene mutation BCRA, which increases the risk of breast cancer, aren’t at an increased risk for the disease, so long as they don’t carry the mutation themselves. Previous studies led people to believe just the opposite: that even if you don’t carry the mutation, you should be treated as high risk for breast cancer and be screened as such. Read more over at TIME.
• The New York Times reports on a new trend in the hotel industry: doing away with rinky-dink fitness rooms and partnering up with brand name gyms to offer guests top-of-the-line facilities during their stay. Makes me wonder: Does a hotel’s gym facility (or lack thereof) factor into your decision of where you’ll lay your head while you’re on vacation? Me, I’m happy with a treadmill and TV. Call me old school.
• And in today’s weight-loss news, chug some ice water if you want to shed a few pounds. While you’re at it, encourage your kids to do the same.
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Now they see twice as many as they used to.
 • As if Halloween candy isn’t enough sugar for kids to deal with, there’s this—news of a report which found that kids’ and teens’ exposure to soda ads doubled between 2008 and 2010. What’s more, hispanic and black kids were disproportionately targeted by the advertising than other groups. Read more at NPR.
• Did you know we’re in a prescription drug shortage? President Barack Obama suspects foul play (i.e. stockpiling to drive up prices) on the part of pharmaceutical companies, so yesterday he signed an executive order to help reduce shortages and protect consumers from the whims of Big Pharma. In a statement about the order, the White House said: “At the extreme, a drug used to treat high blood pressure that was normally priced at $25.90 was being sold at $1,200 due to a drug shortage.” Egads. Get more at CNN.com.
• You probably won’t be surprised by this, but new research found that happy people live longer—35 percent longer, to be exact. Something to smile about, perhaps?
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Save your pocket change and back away from the vending machine—it's time to switch to water
 America, I think we have a drinking problem. One in 20 Americans consume 567 calories from sugary drinks on a given day in the US, according to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the equivalent of guzzling more than four cans of soda every day.
I’m going to pause for a minute and let that sink in.
Four cans. Of soda. A day.
Does that seem excessive to anyone else? The American Heart Association recommends that we get just 450 calories a week from sugary drinks—that’s a little more than two cans of soda every seven days.
It gets worse: Half of us drink sugary drinks every day. Boys between the ages of 12 and 19 consume the most calories a day from sugary drinks of all age groups—273. Girls in the same age bracket consume 171 calories. The lowest is women aged 60 and over, who consume 42.
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A new study shows it's possible to learn your baby's sex as early as seven weeks into pregnancy. But should you?
 A new study out this week reported promising results in using a mother’s blood sample to determine the sex of a fetus as early as seven weeks after conception. The findings, reported this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show 75 percent accuracy at seven weeks and 99 percent accuracy at 20 weeks. Ultrasounds aren’t considered reliable until the mother is at least 12 weeks along, and some doctors won’t make a call one way or the other before 18 weeks. And even then there can be mistakes.
As NPR reports, while maternal blood testing has been used in Europe for years, such tests have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, so they’re not available in the US—yet.
It begs the question: If you could find out your baby’s sex sooner, would you? For seriously Type A moms-to-be, finding out sooner could be a huge stress relief. But the issue raises some bioethical questions, too: Might such a test increase abortion rates if parents find out they’re having a girl, say, when they’d really wanted a boy? Or what about families with histories of genetic disorders? If expectant parents are facing a disease that’s passed down through one gender or another, might they want—or need—to know the sex of their child sooner?
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Dr. Mitchell R. Smith is recruiting identical twins for a blood-cancer study
This week, my aunt is in town visiting us, as she does every summer. On the itinerary: patronizing the fabulous malls of the Garden State, seeing the new Harry Potter—oh yeah, and participating in a twin cancer study.
My mom and her sister are identical twins. My mom has a chronic form of leukemia—the sort of thing you typically live with, rather than die from—and she sees doctors at Fox Chase Cancer Center. She recently learned that Dr. Mitchell R. Smith, director of the lymphoma service at Fox Chase, is recruiting pairs of identical twins for a study about blood cancers, and both my mom and aunt were eager to participate. When I learned that Dr. Smith is still in need of participants, I scheduled a chat with him to get more information. READ MORE
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Meet the 2011 Children's Congress delegates from Pennsylvania
Both my older sister and younger brother have type 1 diabetes, so finding a cure for the disease is a cause near and dear to my heart. Every two years, JDRF Chairman Mary Tyler Moore, a type 1 diabetic herself, and more than 100 hundred children with type 1 diabetes gather in D.C. for the Children’s Congress, where they meet face-to-face with some of the top decision-makers in the U.S. government in the hopes of securing the funds needed to find a cure. The children, ages 4 to 17, represent all 50 states and the District of Columbia. I’ve posted videos of the four adorable girls that will be representing Pennsylvania this year, June 20-22, below. Their stories and dreams for a cure are incredibly familiar. I hope they inspire you to, at the very least, say “yes” the next time the person ringing up your groceries asks if you’ll donate a dollar to finding a cure.
 Ashley Though Ashley was only five years old when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she already knew what it was. Her younger sister, Samantha, had been diagnosed about a year earlier, at 11 months old. Ashley would like to be a teacher one day. She plays soccer, does gymnastics, and enjoys drawing. Her birthday wish is for a cure for type 1. Ashley and her family are working hard to raise awareness and encourage Congressional support of research, to help us one day make her wish come true. READ MORE
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Meet the local pro who can help him shed strokes while shedding pounds
 Going to a golf-geared personal trainer to improve your golf game is a lot like going to … a personal trainer. He visits. You move. He watches. You meet again. You work out. Here’s the difference, though: After those workouts, you’re not just in better shape—you’re also a better golfer because everything you do in the gym is tailored to strengthening your score card. The result: Your scores are lower. Your handicap is higher. And, when you’re back at the clubhouse after a round, you’re happy, not frustrated, energized, not exhausted. READ MORE
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