.A salmonella outbreak has now made 410 people in 43 states sick. It may also be linked to the deaths of three people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says peanut butter is the “likely source” of the nationwide infection.

And the Minnesota Department of Health says genetic testing shows the salmonella in a five-pound tub of peanut butter that infected nursing home residents there is the same strain as the one in the national outbreak.

Peanut Corporation of America, based in Lynchburg, Va., makes the spread. It is distributed nationally by Ohio-based King Nut Companies, which has recalled the products. The peanut butter is not sold in grocery stores – just to places like schools, hospitals, restaurants, and long-term-care facilities.

All the illnesses began between September 15 and January 7, but most people got sick after October 1. Below is a map from the CDC showing the spread of the outbreak across the U.S.

Salmonella symptoms

Symptoms of salmonella food poisoning include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12-72 hours after you’re infected. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days. Most people recover without any treatment, but there can be severe infections especially in people with a weakened immune system, infants and the elderly.

More information

If you think you’ve gotten sick from eating peanut butter, contact your doctor right away. There is more information about this recall here on the FDA’s website.

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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Diabetes is skyrocketing in the United States. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the rate of new cases of diabetes has nearly doubled over the past 10 years. The main reasons? The growing number of obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

More than 23 million Americans have the disease. And the numbers keep soaring – the CDC says about 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in people 20 or older last year. About 90-percent of the cases are type 2 diabetes – the form of the disease closely linked to obesity.

States with the highest rates of new cases were mainly in the South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Minnesota had the lowest rate.

The CDC says losing modest amounts of weight and getting more exercise can help prevent diabetes but many people just aren’t doing that.

You can see the full report here.

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The obesity epidemic is getting worse. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows about 25.6 percent of adults in the U.S. are obese – up nearly two-percent from 2005.

More sombering news – the CDC says no state has yet to meet the national goal to reduce obesity rates to 15 percent or lower by 2010.

The report shows obesity is more prominent in the South, coming in at 27-percent. In the Midwest, it’s 25.3 percent; it’s 23.3 percent in the Northeast, and 22.1 percent in the West.

The fattest states – Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee – are all battling obesity rates of more than 30 percent. Colorado has the lowest rate at 18.7 percent.

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The salmonella outbreak has now made 1,017 people sick, making it the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. And the government is warning, hot peppers may be partly to blame.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says raw plum, Roma, and red round tomatoes are still the main suspects in the outbreak and we still shouldn’t eat them, but it’s also warning people at high risk of getting severely ill from salmonella (the elderly, infants, and those with a weak immune system) to avoid eating raw jalapeño and serrano peppers, too.

Investigators looking into the outbreak found jalapeños caused some of the illnesses. As for serrano peppers, they were included in the warning because they’re hard for a lot of people to tell apart.

The scary thing is the CDC says the outbreak is not showing any signs of slowing down – there have been about 25-40 cases reported every day since the outbreak began April 10, and it’s now hit 41 states (CDC map below).

More confusion – the CDC has found some people who got sick “were more likely to have recently consumed raw tomatoes, fresh jalapeño peppers, and fresh cilantro. These items were commonly, though not always, consumed together, so that study could not determine which item(s) caused the illnesses.”

So… now under investigation – raw tomatoes, jalapeños and serrano peppers, plus fresh cilantro. What a mess.

Photo Credit: stock.xchng

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You still need to stay away from certain kinds of tomatoes. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the Salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes has now made 756 people sick across the country.

The CDC says this may be the largest outbreak of Salmonella infections from tomatoes in the U.S. – it’s linked to raw plum, Roma and round tomatoes.

While there have been no direct deaths from the outbreak, the CDC says a man in his 60s who died from cancer in Texas had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul that may have contributed to his death.

Texas has been the hardest hit with 330 people becoming sick. New Mexico is second with 80 cases. Here is a map from the CDC that shows the outbreak from state to state:

Investigators are still trying to find the source of the contamination.

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Nearly 24 million people in the United States now have diabetes – that’s an increase of more than three million in two years, according to a new report from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means almost eight-percent of people in the U.S. have the disease, mostly type-2 diabetes which is linked with obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

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Obesity kills more than 25,000 people a year in the United States. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop serious health problems including the following:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Type 2 diabetes
• Coronary heart disease
• Stroke
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
• Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)

Obesity is a growing health crisis in the United States that has gotten much worse over the past 20 years. The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows about 66 percent of adults ages 20 and older are either overweight or obese. And the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980 – about 17 percent of children and teens ages 2-19 are now considered overweight.

In 2007, Colorado was the only state that had obesity rates less than 20 percent. The obesity levels in 30 states were 25 percent or higher – three of these states (Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee) were at 30 percent or more.

Below is a map showing obesity rates in each of the 50 states:

Percent of Obese (BMI > 30) in U.S. Adults

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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