Health Buzz: More Peanut Food Product Recalls and Other Health News

Peanut Product Recalls Expand

The scope of the salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter and peanut paste continues to widen. As the list of products lengthens, the Food and Drug Administration is updating its Web page of tainted peanut products. Among those recently yanked from shelves are Nature's Path Peanut Butter Optimum Energy Bars and CLIF and LUNA bars containing peanut butter. And Fido isn't spared, either. PetSmart has announced the recall of Choice dog biscuits because they, too, may contain the tainted ingredient. It seems the trouble emanates from a Georgia factory owned by Peanut Corp. of America. 

Last year, U.S. News's Nancy Shute offered some tips on how to foil salmonella in tomatoes. Shute also reported on the food industry's shortcomings and how to protect your family, which included information on how to spot and prevent common food poisonings.

Women Shouldn't Worry About Their Brains and Weight Loss

U.S. News's Katherine Hobson offers comforting clarification on the news that women's brains are not able to control hunger as well as men's. Her take: Don't give up on your goal to get fit or shed a few pounds. A brain-imaging study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed longer-lasting activity inside women's craniums when they were hungry, shown their favorite foods, and then told to tamp down their desires.

Study authors say the light-up maps of both genders' brains might offer clues to why women seem to struggle more with weight loss than men do. But Hobson warns women that "it doesn't mean you're necessarily fated to give in to that Twinkie." The research has limitations, experts note, one of which is that the results are based on averages—and people of both genders stray from those averages. Some men's brains may respond to hunger and the attempt to beat it back in a way similar to the "average" woman's brain--and vice versa.

So, don't give up; use these five tips to draw upon your willpower. Commit to eat a healthful, balanced diet. And, of course, get a move on with 7 exercise tips.

Feeling Paranoid? You're Not Alone

British clinical psychologist Daniel Freeman says people are on edge and their paranoia is mounting as never before, which inspired his book—new to the United States—Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear. Turns out, about 1 in 4 people routinely suffers from paranoid thoughts. Freeman points a finger at the media for their repeated, graphic, and extreme reports of threats, writes U.S News's Lindsay Lyon. Such paranoid feelings are twice as high in urban areas as in rural areas, notes Freeman.

But not to worry (or fear or get anxious): Lyon offers 5 ways to shrink your suspicions. Unsure if you're paranoid? Take a paranoia quiz. Previous reporting by U.S. News's Matt Shulman offers 6 ways to manage social anxiety. And don't forget the potential of meditation to quell jittery nerves.

—Sarah Baldauf

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