The grocery industry is dominated by five major players — Loblaws, Metro, Empire (the owner of Sobeys), Walmart and Costco. These five companies account for over three-quarters of all food sales in Canada.
The Bureau recommended four policies to encourage competition in the sector. These include establishing a grocery innovation strategy, encouraging new independent and international players, introducing legislation for consistent unit pricing and limiting property controls.
Category: Industrially Produced Edible Substance (Page 2 of 2)
Industrial products engineered and processed to look like food for human consumption. Accepted by nutritionists to unhealthy for human consumption, causing addiction, weight gain, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, etc.
NBC »
The World Health Organization’s cancer research group on Thursday said that it was categorizing the common artificial sweetener found in Diet Coke and other sugar-free foods and drinks as a possible carcinogen, but the agency’s food safety group said that the evidence wasn’t convincing and that the compound could still be consumed safely in fairly high amounts.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it did not agree that aspartame should be categorized as a possible carcinogen.
“Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is used under the approved conditions,” the FDA said in a statement.
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A new study by researchers at the Petris Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth finds that private equity firms own more than half of all specialists in some U.S. markets.
Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz, writing in the NY Times »
In more than a quarter of local markets — in places like Tucson, Ariz.; Columbus, Ohio; and Providence, R.I. — a single private equity firm owned more than 30 percent of practices in a given specialty in 2021. In 13 percent of the markets, the firms owned groups employing more than half the local specialists.
The medical groups were associated with higher prices in their respective markets, particularly when they controlled a dominant share, according to a paper by researchers at the Petris Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. When a firm controlled more than 30 percent of the market, the cost of care in three specialties — gastroenterology, dermatology, and obstetrics and gynecology — increased by double digits.
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Studies have linked PFAS to adverse health effects, including high blood pressure, decreased fertility in women, liver damage, cancer, low birthweight and an increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. The use of some of the more common PFAS was gradually phased out in the United States between 2000 and 2015. However, other variations of the chemicals have taken their place. The newer PFAS tend to have shorter chains of the carbon-fluorine bond, and are thus more rapidly eliminated from the body. But the FDA says they continue to present a concern for human health.
Research suggests that people who regularly consume microwave popcorn have markedly higher levels of PFAS in their bodies. A study published in 2019 analyzed a decade of data about the eating habits of 10,000 people, which was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2003 and 2014. Blood samples from the study participants were also collected. The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average.
The term ultra-processed foods may bring to mind sugary drinks or snacks, but chances are it fits more of the stuff in your fridge than you think. In a conversation from May, Mark Kelley talks to physician Chris van Tulleken about the health impacts.
CBC » The Current with Matt Galloway