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At the end of December, I received an email from Paula Johns, director of ACT Health Promotion in Brazil.

Today we are celebrating the approval of the tax reform in Brazil. This Tuesday, Dec 17th, the text was approved by the National Congress!!

The tax reform is a historic achievement for Brazil and we celebrate the fact that products harmful to health, such as tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks, are included in the selective tax. We followed each stage of the discussion and saw the intense lobbying by the economic sector that profits from these products to weaken the selective tax proposal, but it was finally approved, as well as the tax-exempt basic food basket, with healthier products in accordance with the Brazilian Food Guidelines.

…Important to highlight that our National Congress is one of the worst we’ve ever had! To beat The Coca-Cola lobby there is quite an achievement! Wanted to celebrate with you. The inclusion of carbonated drinks in the selective tax now opens the door for a broader discussion about other categories of ultraprocessed foods in the revision that will happen in five years from now.

I also received a press announcement: “Historic Public Health Victory”: Vital Strategies Applauds Brazil’s Approval of Selective Tax on Tobacco, Soft Drinks, and Alcohol

The newly approved legislation includes annual tax adjustments for tobacco, soft drinks and alcohol in line with inflation. Additionally, it establishes an innovative basic food basket of healthy, sustainable products exempt from taxation. The tax reform also grants a 60% reduction in tax rates for horticultural and minimally processed products, nuts, oils, flours, and items from Brazil’s rich socio-biodiversity.  These measures will help ensure better access to nutritious food while discouraging consumption of unhealthy commodities.

…The specific tax rates for tobacco, alcohol, and soft drinks will be determined in 2025. To fully realize the public health benefits of this new tax structure, the levels of tax must be sufficient to reduce consumption. Vital Strategies, Brazil, will collaborate closely with partners to advocate for tax rates that prioritize public health. Setting these rates at levels that significantly reduce consumption of harmful products will protect communities from preventable diseases.

I tried to find more details, and hit upon Covington ‘s Brazil’s historic tax reform: a primer.  This lays out what will have to happen before implementation.  It says almost nothing about the public health taxes except this:

Key Change: the Selective Tax
In addition to the dual VAT (CBS/IBS), the reform establishes a new Selective Tax (IS) to regulate goods and services it characterizes as having significant negative health and environmental externalities. The IS will be charged on production, extraction, sale, or importation of these goods and services.

This will be interesting to watch.  Stay tuned!

As a long-time proponent of food advocacy, I’ve been collecting suggestions for what you and I can do to stop or counter presidential decrees that we think damaging to Americans and American democracy.

A lot of this is easy.  Do it!

• State your opinion to Washington: Call the Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
• State your opinion to your representatives. To find your representative, click here.  To find your Senator, click here.
• Protect the vulnerable in your community; Urge your state’s attorney general to file complaints, injunctions, and restraining orders. To find your state attorney general, click here.
• Join with others in your community to protest what needs to be protested. To find local organizations working on such issues, click Indivisible here.
• Boycott companies enabling the illegal government takeover. Click here to find out a corporation’s politics.
• Support groups doing the litigating. Track federal cases here.
• Speak truth to power. Get news from reliable sources; spread it.
• Take care of yourself; stay strong.

Much of this has been inspired by Robert Reich’s daily comments on current events, and his summary of needed actions. 

He says,

We will get through this, and we will prevail.”

But it will require confidence, courage, and tenacity. We need to stay healthy for this fight. We need to be fortified by those we care about. And we need to be there for those we love.

His final piece of advice: “keep the faith.”

Do not give up on America. Do not fall into the traps of cynicism and defeatism. Remember, Trump won the popular vote by only 1.5 points. By any historical measure, this was a squeaker…America has deep problems, to be sure. Which is why we can’t give up on it — or give up the fights for social justice, equal political rights, equal opportunity, democracy, and the rule of law.

An anonymous reader sent me this list, purportedly from the National Science Foundation, of words that disqualify scientists from submitting papers for publication, and applicants from getting grants.  The reader also sent the NSF decision tree for use of these words.  I cannot trace the original source of this material.  If you have any information about whether this is for real, please let me know.  My favorite words on this list?  Advocate and women.

The disqualifying words:

• activism
• activists
• advocacy
• advocate
• advocates
• antiracist
• barrier
• barriers
• biased
• biased toward
• biases
• biases towards
• bipoc
• black and latinx
• community diversity
• community equity
• cultural differences
• cultural heritage
• culturally responsive
• disabilities
• disability
• discriminated
• discrimination
• discriminatory
• diverse backgrounds
• diverse communities
• diverse community
• diverse group
• diverse groups
• diversified
• diversify
• diversifying
• diversity and inclusion
• diversity equity
• enhance the diversity
• enhancing diversity
• equal opportunity
• equality
• equitable
• equity
• ethnicity
• excluded
• female
• females
• fostering inclusivity
• gender
• gender diversity
• genders
• hate speech
• hispanic minority
• historically
• implicit bias
• implicit biases
• inclusion
• inclusive
• inclusiveness
• inclusivity
• increase diversity
• increase the diversity
• indigenous community
• inequalities
• inequality
• inequitable
• inequities
• institutional
• lgbt
• marginalize
• marginalized
• minorities
• minority
• multicultural
• polarization
• political
• prejudice
• privileges
• promoting diversity
• race and ethnicity
• racial
• racial diversity
• racial inequality
• racial justice
• racially
• racism
• sense of belonging
• sexual preferences
• social justice
• socio cultural
• socio economic
• sociocultural
• socioeconomic status
• stereotypes
• systemic
• trauma
• under appreciated
• under represented
• under served
• underrepresentation
• underrepresented
• underserved
• undervalued
• victim
• women
• women and underrepresented

The NSF decision tree for disqualifying papers or grant applications using those words:

Tomorrow: How to comment on all of this.

Resources sent by readers

• A Washington Post story on the list
• The likely effects of the list on researchers at UC San Diego
• What caused all this, according to the Senate Commerce Committee
• The full report of the Senate Commerce Committee (see Appendix B for much longer list of trigger words)

The study: Amone F, Spina A, Perri A, Lofaro D, Zaccaria V, Insolia V, Lirangi C, Puoci F, Nobile V. Standardized Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Extract Improves Short- and Long-Term Cognitive Performances in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, and Placebo-Controlled Trial. Foods. 2024; 13(18):2999. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13182999

After two years of work, the Government Accountability Office has just published: WIC Infant Formula:Single-Supplier Competitive Contracts Reduce Program Costs and Modestly Increase Retail Prices.

Here’s its quick summary:

Over half the country’s infant formula is bought through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). States must contract with the formula manufacturer that offers the lowest price after a rebate to be their sole supplier for WIC.

Two formula manufacturers hold most of the contracts. In 2022, the U.S. had a formula shortage because one of them halted production after a recall.

While sole supplier contracts make states vulnerable to supply disruptions, the rebates saved states about $1.6 billion in FY 2023. These savings offset other WIC food costs, allowing the program to serve more eligible participants.

This is such a weird system—monopoly infant formula in action!—that’s it hard to fathom.  But take a look at this:

Let me just say that all infant formulas have to meet the FDA’s strict nutritional requirements.  This means that they are all the same nutritionally.

But the prices differ by four-fold, as far as I can tell.

So this is all about marketing share.  Take a look at the effects of WIC on this market.

The USDA’s Food Surveys Research Group recently released its most recent Dietary Data Briefs based on What We Eat in America (WWEIA) data from NHANES 2020.

• Mexican Food Consumption by Adults
• Mexican Food Consumption by Children
• Pizza Consumption of the U.S. population

I went right to pizza.

Women over the age of 60 report getting nearly a third of their daily calories from pizza?

Even little kids get a fifth?

And that was before the pandemic….

I love pizza, but dietary variety anyone?

I am fortunate to be on the mailing list for Nicholas Fereday’s always-worth-reading Rabobank’s RaboResearch.  This one is especially worth sharing: Talking Points: Anti-obesity medications—Will the food industry be the biggest loser?

It has been oer a year since the food industry finally woke up to the threats and opportunities of the new class of Anti-Obesity Medications (AOMs) such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound.  And gosh, what a lot has happened since then. Chiefly, both the demand and supply of these drugs have exceeded all expectations and the momentum driving the market suggests they are highly likely to become a permanent feature of the food landscape. Doubly so as scientists keep finding further benefits from taking them – the weight loss effects of these drugs might ultimately prove to be their least remarkable feature. But for now, the impact of these drugs on the food industry is real. The challenge for the food industry is to figure out how to respond to that and unlock some of the opportunities these drugs create. Here are three points to consider:

1.   The AOM market is much bigger and growing much faster than anticipated.

2.   There are good reasons to believe demand has strong momentum.

3.    Users of AOMs eat less and differently, providing a useful roadmap for food companies.

A reader, William Haaf, alerted me to this one: California companies required to disclose heavy metal content in baby food

As of January 2025, baby food manufacturers selling in California must disclose test results for four heavy metals – arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury – via an on-pack QR code.

The law, Assembly Bill 899 (AB 899), was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2023 and requires monthly testing of baby food for the specified contaminants.

Manufacturers must now provide a QR code on product packaging that links to publicly available test results, including batch numbers and links to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) information on toxic heavy metals.

What this is about

• The decision follows a 2021 US Congressional report that found significantly high levels of heavy metals in major baby food brands, including arsenic levels up to 91 times the legal limit for drinking water and lead levels up to 177 times higher.
• Maryland will require baby food testing disclosures from January 2026
• Virginia introduced House Bill 1844 to mandate heavy metal transparency starting in January 2026
• The FDA  just finalized voluntary action levels for lead in children’s food
• This is part of the FDA’s Closer to Zero: Reducing Childhood Exposure to Contaminants from Foods 
• What the American Academy of Pediatrics says about toxic metals

How to avoid toxic metals in baby foods: Suggestions

• Offer a variety of healthy vegetables and fruits
• Make your own baby food
• Limit highly processed foods
• Limit rice cereal
• Offer other cereals and whole grains
• If you must give fruit juice, make your own
• Limit processed snacks
• Don’t use teething biscuits.
• Test your tap water