Table of Contents
FDA Consumer magazine
September-October 2000
Many people think they can tell when food is completely cooked just by eyeballing it. But food safety experts tell us this system is flawed. One out of four hamburgers, for example, turns brown--appearing fully cooked--before it's cooked to a temperature high enough to destroy harmful bacteria. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the best way to ensure meat, poultry and egg products are "done" is by using a food thermometer. However, a 1998 federal study showed that less than half of the population owned a thermometer and only 3 percent used it when cooking hamburgers. To help promote wider thermometer use, USDA created "Thermy," a cartoon character being displayed with food-safety messages on posters and literature in grocery stores nationwide. Thermy also has a Website, www.fsis.usda.gov/thermy/, which has games and educational materials for kids and a chart showing safe minimum cooking temperatures for various foods. The site includes links to other helpful information on food safety, such as how to keep food safe when camping or hiking.
Losing weight. It can be pretty tough. Even harder is keeping off the pounds once they've been shed. Many experts agree that the key to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is setting sensible goals and expectations. On its Website at www.consumer.gov/weightloss/, the Partnership for Healthy Weight Management has some good advice on starting a weight-loss program and sticking with it. The site promotes gradual weight loss--no more than two pounds a week--as opposed to a "crash" diet where much weight is taken off in a short period. A consumer guide available on the site, "Finding a Weight Loss Program That Works for You," includes a checklist of various weight-loss plans that allows consumers to tailor their own program. The site also has helpful information on avoiding weight-loss products advertised with extravagant, and often bogus, claims. The Federal Trade Commission manages the site as part of a coalition of scientific, academic, health-care, government, commercial, and public health members.
Consumers and patients can learn more about different types of cancer and their treatments on a new FDA Website called "Oncology Tools." At www.fda.gov/cder/cancer/, users can search for information by specific cancer type and by approved drug therapies. Documents are available on cancer drug labeling, approval summaries, and advisory committee transcripts. Health care professionals can use the site to get references for performing clinical studies and for information on calculating drug dose. And the page includes links to other FDA resources for cancer patients, including the latest on clinical trials and more on treatments and diagnostic tools.
Looking for an item in the Federal Register? How about a figure from the U.S. budget from the last three years? Or maybe a chapter in the U. S. Government Manual?
Well, you could probably seek out hard copies of these documents, but a much easier way would be to go to the Government Printing Office's "GPO Access" site, where those and more than 100,000 other federal publications are a keystroke away. Split into categories such as legislative, executive, judicial, and regulatory, the site includes the Congressional Record, the Code of Federal Regulations, and Ben's Guide to U. S. Government for Kids, a resource for parents, teachers, and students kindergarten to 12th grade. GPO Access users can even check out the latest federal job openings. The site includes a running tally of new items added, and visitors can search for an item by topic, title, agency, or keyword within one database or across several. To access the site, go to www.access.gpo.gov.
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