Howard County's food and nutrition department has "made the most changes in the a la carte food offerings -- perhaps too much change," the audit states. As a result of the wellness policy, a la carte items can contain no more than 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat and 15 grams of sugar per serving. The Howard County school board unanimously approved the increase because of an 8 percent jump in employee salaries, a 9 percent rise in employee benefits, and fuel and transportation...

What is it about us coffee fiends and our coffee cards? What drives us to get our stamps and then hoist our trophies over our heads and bay at the moon? Is it the victory? The sense of accomplishment? Maybe we had a childhood dream of getting a free coffee every two weeks for the rest of our adult lives. You know, the little cards that get punched, stamped, or marked whenever you buy a cup of coffee or latt at your favorite local coffee shop. After nine or 10 stamps, you get a free cup of...

My coffee drinking is confined to a few cups at the house but I perk up, so to speak, whenever she sends out her solicitations. Here in our humble newsroom, the job of collecting cash and buying the coffee and fixing belongs to the efficient Robin Fitzgerald, our cops and courts reporter, whose beat is gritty on a good day and grizzly at worst. When she has to, though, Robin can craft a stern warning, like she did recently when she skipped the lyrics and cut to the chase: In the newsroom...

But to feed the family, they still had to rely on food stamps. Over the past month, politicians from Capitol Hill to San Diego have been struggling with the question of how to feed the nation's poor or, more specifically, what to do about the $33 billion food stamp program. Nevertheless, the Bush administration has proposed cutbacks to the program, such as eliminating food stamps from about 185,000 people because they receive other non-cash forms of assistance from the government. To draw...

advertisement If accepted by parents, her claims could have damaging implications for the baby food industry, which is now worth more than 450 million a year in Britain. Parents are putting their babies' health at risk by spoon-feeding them pureed food, according to a Unicef childcare expert. Ms Rapley, a health visitor for 25 years, has produced a DVD, Baby-Led Weaning, to explain her feeding programme, which teaches that babies over six months should be in charge of what they eat and...

Those who were fed pureed food by their parents were also more likely to become constipated - because they could not control how much food they ate or how long they chewed it. Infants who had been fed pureed food before six months often didn't take easily to solids as they were used to eating food where individual tastes and textures were disguised. She found that babies who were fed on solids after six months (pieces of meat, vegetables and fruit that aren't mashed) developed better...

The company uses what nutritionists have described as "bad fats'' in its custards and chocolate mousse to give them a "whipped'' texture. A POPULAR range of Weight Watchers desserts is made with harmful hydrogenated fat, which is known to put consumers at risk of heart disease. Latest research shows that most Australian women are unaware that heart disease is their number one killer, despite an average of 31 females dying from it every day. However, she insisted the products were not a...

A Canberra specialist has seen a 12-fold increase in the number of young children suffering from food allergies and has called for an urgent investigation into the trend. There has also been a "dramatic increase" in the number of children hospitalised as a result of anaphylaxis the most severe and potentially deadly type of food allergy. Canberra immunologist and allergy specialist Associate Professor Raymond Mullins said the problem should be urgently studied to pinpoint the risk factors...

The loss is particularly devastating now because there is an increased demand for food during the summer. Food bank looking for donations to help restock pantry. Holland will go out today and buy meat, but said the agency will need donations to make up the loss. Food in a cooler was also damaged. People really care about hunger and hungry families, she said. The freezer s temperature increased and the food thawed. It s not clear if the mechanical problems were related or what caused them,...