Beyond Nutrient Deficiency-Opportunities to Improve Nutritional Status and Promote Health Modernizing DRIs and Supplementation Recommendations.

The US Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide dietary recommendations to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and prevent disease. Despite 40 years of DGA, the prevalence of under-consumed nutrients continues in the US and globally, although dietary supplement use can help to fill shortfalls. Nutrient recommendations are based on Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) to meet the nutrient requirements for nearly all (97 to 98 percent) healthy individuals in a particular life stage and gender group and many need to be updated using current evidence.

The significance of a thickened endometrial echo in asymptomatic postmenopausal patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of a thickened endometrial echo in an asymptomatic, postmenopausal patient.

Study Design: A retrospective review was conducted of all women who underwent transvaginal ultrasonography between January 2003 and August 2008, were found to have an endometrial thickness of at least 5mm and were subjected to endometrial sampling.

Results: Sixty-five postmenopausal women, without vaginal bleeding underwent ultrasonographic evaluation with subsequent endometrial sampling.

Personal responsibility and obesity: a constructive approach to a controversial issue.

The concept of personal responsibility has been central to social, legal, and political approaches to obesity. It evokes language of blame, weakness, and vice and is a leading basis for inadequate government efforts, given the importance of environmental conditions in explaining high rates of obesity. These environmental conditions can override individual physical and psychological regulatory systems that might otherwise stand in the way of weight gain and obesity, hence undermining personal responsibility, narrowing choices, and eroding personal freedoms.

Regulatory Perspective of the USDA on the Use of Antimicrobials and Inhibitors in Foods.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is directly involved in the changes occurring in food ingredient use. FSIS responds to petitions from industry, trade groups, academia, and other research organizations for the use of new ingredients and the new use of existing ingredients in meat and poultry products. The agency confirms the safety and evaluates the technical efficacy of food ingredients intended for use in meat or poultry products.