Ken Wassum, Senior Product Manager, Tobacco:   It appears that manufacturers of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) have shrugged off the efforts of the FDA to limit access to e-cigs and to point out safety concerns (read final FDA Report here). One brand, Smoking Everywhere, has filed an injunction to try and halt the FDA’s authority to block import of these products, citing the FDA “lacks jurisdiction to regulate its product.” The FDA claims (and rightly so), “SE’s [Smoking Everywher... [More]

Kara Linton, Mind & Body Coach   Recently PETA launched its “Save the Whales” campaign. Residents and tourists in Palm Beach, FL can’t help but notice the giant billboard featuring the back of an obese, bikini-clad woman with a slogan reading “Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian.” A recent blog on PETA’s website states they are trying to remind residents and tourists that eating a vegetarian diets offers weight loss benefits, pointing to statistics showing vegetarians are 2... [More]

Beth Shepard, MS, Exercise Physiologist, Contributing Writer:   At a time when consumers are getting mixed messages regarding the value of exercise, the New York Times serves up a recently published study from Finland pointing to moderate and vigorous exercise as a cancer prevention tool. Researchers studied the physical activity habits of about 2500 middle-aged Finnish men over the course of 17 years. After controlling for factors such as age, fiber and fat intake, and cigarette ... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   There’s been a lot of talk lately about a new study conducted by researchers at Louisiana State University that showed that increasing exercise doesn’t cause weight loss. In fact, people who exercised the most in this study were actually more likely to gain weight than those who exercised least. Despite the buzz, the idea that exercise doesn’t help you lose weight is actually old news; there have been dozens of s... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   Recently, yet another study was released supporting the health benefits of chocolate. This time, researchers reported in the Journal of Internal Medicine that, in people who had previously had a heart attack, eating chocolate at least twice per week was associated with lower risk of dying of heart disease. Earlier research has shown that eating chocolate is associated with lower blood pressure, decreased risk of ... [More]

Steve Tutty, Associate Director, Clinical Behavioral Services:   How many of your employees are feeling the effects of chronic stress this very minute? Chances are, the answer is "all of them." There are many reasons why this could be. First, consider our modern environment.  We depend on sophisticated information tools to work more efficiently, and we now expect efficient productivity.  As a result, employees are multi tasking – email, text, internet, cell, text, email, etc., and... [More]

Ken Wassum, Senior Product Manager, Tobacco:   Electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigs, continue to attract the attention. Those paying attention include smokers who are looking for a “safer” way of continuing to smoke, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who is concerned about the lack of safety data on these products, and, of course, ambitious entrepreneurs world-wide looking to make a buck or yuan. Let’s take another look at what we actually know about these products. Ma... [More]

Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Development and Support:   The issue of food and addiction has been getting a lot of attention lately following the publication of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s book, “The End of Overeating.” In his book, Dr. Kessler presents compelling evidence that sugar, fat and salt have addictive properties.  He refers to these foods as “hyper-palatable”- that is, they specifically stimulate our appetite to eat more of them.  And the appeti... [More]

Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   The organic food debate was back in the news this week when a study carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was released. The review study was commissioned by The Food Standards Agency (FSA) to discover whether Britain's organic industry could claim more health benefits for its products. Although the study concluded that there was no important nutritional difference between orga... [More]

Erin Thompson, Marketing Manager:   Yesterday, The Washington Post ran excerpts from an interview with former FDA commissioner, David Kessler, who spoke about America’s obesity crisis and the need for a complete restructuring of the way we approach the problem: “…we have to change the way we look at food. Not how we look at fat people, not whether we want to be thin or not, but how we look at food. If you look at that lemon cake and say, ‘This is my friend,’ then there’s nothing I... [More]