Dr. Steve: Eating Our Berries, Protecting Our Meat & A New Cellphone Cancer Study

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7:00am Segment Info:
In light of yesterdays huge meat recall, many are concerned about the safety of our food supply - specifically the meat supply.

Now US officials say there's only a remote chance of adverse health problems related to this massive recall. The meat packing company was cited for the mistreatment and slaughtering of downer cows - those are cows that can't stand up because of an illness or injury. The biggest fear is mad cow disease. In this case the cows were evaluated and determined to be healthy before they were downed, so health officials say there's little risk.

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Most of this meat has already been put to market.

It has and much of the 143 million pounds has already been eaten. At least 37 million pounds have made it to the national school lunch program and other programs for the elderly and American Indians. If that meat was tainted we would have seen something by now. Still, the recall is in place to insure that no one gets sick.

In other news, one of the healthiest foods you can eat are berries.

They've been called the most powerful superfood.

And now researchers say eating berries every day can help lower your blood pressure and raise your good cholesterol and that can help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. This study is from finland and it found that eating two portions of berries a every day for eight weeks increased the HDL cholesterol levels that's the good cholesterol by 5% and lowered blood pressure by one and a half points. Researchers say berries are packed with polyphenols, which are high in antioxidants.

8:00am Segment Info:
The slogan is "soup is good food" and now campbell's soup is living up to that slogan by reducing the amount of sodium in its soups.

They're adding 36 reformulated ready-to-serve varieties under the name "campbell's select harvest" brand and they're reformulating 12 condensed soups for kids. The kids soups will now meet the government criteria for "healthy" foods-controlled for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. The sodium level in these soups will be lowered to 480 milligrams, which is considered heart healthy.

What's the daily recommended amount of sodium people can eat?

The cut off is about 24 hundred milligrams so at 480 that's one fifth of your entire day's supply of sodium. But remember, sodium lurks in many of the different foods we eat from bread to processed meats to ketchup. Not to mention the extra salt that we add to our food. So this is definitely a step in the right direction.

In other news, we've all heard about the possible link between cell phones and brain cancer, but now there may be something else to worry about.

Possibly, reserachers in israel say they've discovered a link between heavy cell phone use and cancer of the salivary gland.

Your salivary glands are located just at the angle of your jaw, and that's right where you place your cell phone. Researchers say those who used the phone against one side of the head for several hours a day were 50% more likely to developed a salivary gland tumor. You should know that cancer of the salivary gland is generally considered very rare.

What does the overwhelming research show on this issue?

There have been lots of studies looking at the risk of cancer and cell phone use especially brain cancer and i can tell you that overwhelmingly. There appears to be no increased cancer risk. In fact, the largest and longest-running investigation ever done on mobile phone usage found no increased risk of any kind of cancer, but if you're concerned. The best thing that you can do is be smart about your cell phone use. You should only use your cell phone when you need to.