Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Skeptical Hypochondriac Adds Fiber to My Media Diet

Skeptical Hypochondriac logo of a bearded man with an ice pack on his headOne type of coverage I follow closely in my daily newspaper reading is medical news. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't find out that one study said hormone replacement was bad for you while another study said it was good for you.

To supplement my daily printed intake, I recently began reading a blog called The Skeptical Hypochondriac. It's written by a guy named Dave Pell, who's a web entrepreneur -- not a doctor, and he doesn't play one on TV, either. He just seems like a smart member of the public who reads a lot of stuff about health in all its facets, and wants to share his thoughts.

His recent post -- about Kelloggs' plans to add fiber to Fruit Loops and all of their kids' cereal -- is typical of the stories on his blog. I don't remember seeing anything about this story (yet) in the paper.

In his post, the Hypochondriac quoted a source about the fiber boost:

Fiber is the top-ranked item that consumers are asking Kellogg to add to kid cereals, says Jose Alberto Duenas, vice president of U.S. cereal marketing. The number of consumers who check fiber content on nutrition panels grew to 52% last year, vs. 42% in 2006, reports the International Food Information Council.
Now that's a cool fact, from a public health education standpoint. Almost a 25 percent increase in the number of people checking for fiber content, in just two years. Some kind of message has gotten through to people.

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