Kate Scannell, MD

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First Published in Print: 06/11/2011

FOOD AND health and safety issues cooked up more news within the last two weeks than Lindsay Lohan and Oprah Winfrey combined! Is the public appetite changing?

A toppled pyramid, fishy fish, killer bacteria stalking European food supplies, Ronald MacDonald's job threatened and the FDA taking heat on the back burner . . . how to digest it all?

Let's begin with the dismantling of the 2005 food pyramid --that charming but baffling icon developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that was supposed to somehow guide us toward healthier nutritional habits. But few Americans could crack the mysterious code of the old-world pyramid and its six unlabeled columns, all the while our nation's obesity and diabetes epidemics swiftly expanded.

Americans puzzled over the nutritional significance of the staircase -- or escalator? -- appended to the pyramid. They were distracted by the disarticulated humanoid figure that loitered on it. Was it a mummy emerging from the pyramidal catacombs? Was its disarticulation merely metaphor for the entire icon's failure to articulate a coherent message about good nutrition? Why was it running away from "the five food groups" jumbled at the pyramid's base -- especially if they were supposed to be good for us? Sadly, in the wake of the food pyramid's recent dismantling, we may never find out. Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist
First Published in Print: 02/06/2011

READING FOUR newspapers over breakfast each morning may turn out to be the most effective weight-loss regime in history. Simultaneously digesting the daily news about our food supply's safety and quality, our nation's expanding obesity epidemic, and the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to capitalize on the latter can generate significant appetite suppression.

Last week delivered a remarkable serving of health-related food news. After spreading it all out on the table for the purpose of writing this column . . . well, it left me feeling unsatisfied and hungry for something not on the menu: a coherent logic about healthy eating. Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist
First Published in Print: 12/26/2010

WHILE THE past year regaled us with a wealth of medical stories, the government's health care reform legislation took center stage. Meanwhile, the swine flu virus whimpered, but a killer bacterium left us with a whooping cough. Scientists created the world's first synthetic organism inside a Petri dish, while old-world bed bugs crawled into our mattresses. A baby was born from a fertilized human egg that had been frozen for two decades, and, following yet another Salmonella epidemic traced to tainted poultry, the FDA finally cracked down on the egg industry.

The swine flu whimpered
The swine flu hogged media attention, panicked millions of people and consumed considerable public health resources. Its causative virus -- H1N1 -- spread throughout the world like a hog on ice, ultimately proving to be much less formidable than experts had predicted. In the bitter end, critics claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) had exaggerated the danger, fanning public fears about the scarcity of antiviral medications and life-saving medical interventions. An editorial in the British Medical Journal claimed that some experts advising the WHO about the pandemic had financial ties to drug companies that manufactured antivirals and vaccines. Still, the threat of a global pandemic forced governments and health care systems to plan collaboratively for a more coordinated and efficient emergency response to the next public health crisis.

The cough that whooped California
For six decades, whooping cough -- formally known as "pertussis" -- had been rather quiet on the Western front. But in July the CDC reported that six California infants had died from the infection.  Read More 

By Kate Scannell MD, Contributing columnist Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED IN PRINT 09/18/2010

YOU RISK upsetting readers whenever you express strong opinions within medical columns. Writing about controversial health care issues predictably ruffles a few feathers. But "laying it all out" for public deliberation is a primary objective of op-ed writing, and this week's column shell make no eggs-ception.

So here goes. Simply put: I am opposed to the presence of disease-causing salmonella within eggs meant for human consumption.  Read More