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New U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Wheaton college professor under fire and China's stock market turmoil

BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 21:  A customer buys tomatoes at a fruit and vegetable stand at the Maybachufer market in Kreuzberg district on June 21, 2011 Berlin, Germany. The twice-weekly Maybachufer market is among Berlin's most popular outdoor markets.  (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 21: A customer buys tomatoes at a fruit and vegetable stand at the Maybachufer market in Kreuzberg district on June 21, 2011 Berlin, Germany. The twice-weekly Maybachufer market is among Berlin's most popular outdoor markets. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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Listen 1:35:08
New dietary guidelines were released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; discussing Chipotle's continued trouble with food safety and innovative technology at the Consumer Electronics Show raises concerns about security.
New dietary guidelines were released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; discussing Chipotle's continued trouble with food safety and innovative technology at the Consumer Electronics Show raises concerns about security.

New dietary guidelines were released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; discussing Chipotle's continued trouble with food safety and innovative technology at the Consumer Electronics Show raises concerns about security.

Breakfast nosh and thirst quenchers biggest news in 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines

Listen 21:48
Breakfast nosh and thirst quenchers biggest news in 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines

Some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs, coffee, and salt as much as they once thought and eating lean meat is still OK.

But watch the added sugars, especially the sugary drinks.

New dietary guidelines, released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, back off the strictest sodium rules included in the last version, while still asserting that Americans consume too much salt. The guidelines reverse previous guidance on the dangers of dietary cholesterol and add strict new advice on sugars.    

After a backlash from the meat industry and Congress, the administration ignored several suggestions from a February report by an advisory committee of doctors and nutrition experts. That panel suggested calling for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats and de-emphasized lean meats in its list of proteins that are part of a healthy diet.    

But, as in the previous years, the government still says lean meats are part of a healthy eating pattern.

What are the major changes? How were they arrived at? Where do the guidelines fall short in your opinion? How will the USDA get out the word to change Americans’ diet habits? Will behavior change?

With files from the Associated Press.

Guests:

Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She is the author of a number of books on nutrition and food safety, including “Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health” (University of California Press, 2013), which she co-authored with Michael Pollan

Joy Dubost, PhD in Food Science a Registered Dietitian with a PhD in Food Science; Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Chipotle’s troubles further tainted by criminal investigation

Listen 9:55
Chipotle’s troubles further tainted by criminal investigation

In Chipotle's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission published yesterday, the food chain divulged it was served with a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena focused on a Simi Valley location's norovirus outbreak in August 2015.

The outbreak reportedly sickened more than 200 patrons and workers.

Despite the temporary closure of dozens of Chipotle restaurants due to more dangerous E. coli outbreaks, this is the first time the chain is at the center of a criminal investigation.

Guests:

Michelle M. Mello, JD, Ph.D., Professor of Law and Professor of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University

Michael Doyle, Ph.D.,Regents Professor of Food Microbiology & Director, Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia

Why Wheaton College wants to fire a professor for her comments on Muslims

Listen 15:48
Why Wheaton College wants to fire a professor for her comments on Muslims

CHICAGO (AP) - The professor of a Christian college who asserted Christians and Muslims worship the same God said Wednesday that her views are in line with the suburban Chicago college's mission and disputed university accounts of interactions with administrators who've taken steps to fire her.

Larycia Hawkins, who's Christian, was placed on leave at Wheaton College in December after posting her views on Facebook. She also wore a headscarf to show solidarity with Muslims.

College officials said her views were inconsistent with the college's "doctrinal convictions." On Tuesday, they said she refused to participate in further conversations about theological issues and initiated termination-for-cause proceedings.  

However, Hawkins said she tried to reconcile with university officials during a news conference Wednesday at a downtown Chicago church where she received backing from religious leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

With Files from Associated Press.

Guest:

David Albertson, associate professor of religion at USC’s Dornsife College

Jihad Turk, founding president of Bayan Claremont, an Islamic graduate school at the Claremont School of Theology

Contagion 2.0? Dissecting China’s stock market turmoil and why it’s rocked the world

Listen 14:51
Contagion 2.0? Dissecting China’s stock market turmoil and why it’s rocked the world

China suspended stock market trading for a second time Thursday, after stocks freefell 7 percent in just 30 minutes of trading.

In its wake, stock markets around the world also plunged. The Dow and the Nasdaq both saw massive selloff, but have since recovered some of the losses after China announced that it’ll suspend its recently-implemented “circuit breaker” system, which has been used by regulators there to stem market volatility in the country.

China’s latest stock market trouble reflects a greater fear that the second-biggest economy in the world is slowing down and that a “hard landing” is all but inevitable.

Are these fears overblown? What are the underlying factors behind China’s economic slowdown? How would China’s economic troubles play out in the US and the rest of the world?

Guests:

Edwin Truman, fellow specializing in Asian economies and the IMF at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He served as assistant secretary of the US Treasury for International Affairs from 1998 to 2001

Carl Riccadonna, Chief US economist at Bloomberg Intelligence

CES 2016 is all about the ‘smart home,’ but will consumers sacrifice privacy for connectivity?

Listen 16:07
CES 2016 is all about the ‘smart home,’ but will consumers sacrifice privacy for connectivity?

Every year in January, the tech world converges on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, to showcase the best, most ambitious, and just plain coolest new technology and gadgets they’re developing.

In addition to the TVs, tablets, and VR devices that we expect to see at CES, smart home products are a big part of this year’s show.

How about a smart fridge with a full touch screen and cameras inside that can beam pictures of your food right to your smartphone? Or a smart shower head that tells you when you’re wasting water?

These are just the beginning of the kinds of tech that aims to bring connectivity on several platforms to the average home. But as homes become more connected and the ‘Internet of Things’ becomes more of a reality, there also comes a risk of invasion of privacy.

For every new tech product that comes out, there’s always someone who figures out how to hack into it.

How much are consumers willing to sacrifice in terms of privacy in order to have a connected home? And why do some consumers not even think twice about how much privacy they’ll sacrifice when it comes to this new technology?

Guests:

Dan Ackerman, editor at CNET; he’s in Las Vegas for CES 2016 and tweeting from

Elizabeth Weise, reporter for USA Today covering computer security, technology, and Silicon Valley

New study looks at brain activities of jazz musicians to find link between emotions and creativity

Listen 16:38
New study looks at brain activities of jazz musicians to find link between emotions and creativity

A new study published this week seeks to aims to crack the code on how emotions feed and influence the process of creativity.

The study’s authors scanned the brains of 12 professional jazz pianists as they sat down at the piano to improvise, and found that their brain activities differ depending on what kind of emotions they were trying to musically convey.

Larry Mantle speaks with one of the study’s authors on the new research, and the implications it holds to our understanding of the creative process.

Emotional Intent Modulates The Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Impro...

Guest:

Malinda McPherson, a PhD candidate at the  Harvard-MIT Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, and lead author of the study, “Emotional Intent Modulates The Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Improvisation in Jazz Musicians” published in this week’s journal, “Scientific Reports.” She tweets from