
Nissin launches nutritious meals in US as weight loss drugs take off
In the U.S., Kanzen Meal is starting out with three types of frozen meals. (Kanzen Meal (U.S.A.))
HIROKO NISHIMURA
NEW YORK -- Nissin Foods Holdings is bringing its popular Kanzen Meshi brand to the U.S., seeking to tap into the growing demand for convenient, nutritious meals among Americans using weight loss drugs.
Nissin announced Thursday the launch of three products in the frozen meal line, including spaghetti bolognese, in California under the Kanzen Meal name. The plan is to go national by 2027.

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Nikkei Asia
a day ago
- Nikkei Asia
Nissin launches nutritious meals in US as weight loss drugs take off
In the U.S., Kanzen Meal is starting out with three types of frozen meals. (Kanzen Meal (U.S.A.)) HIROKO NISHIMURA NEW YORK -- Nissin Foods Holdings is bringing its popular Kanzen Meshi brand to the U.S., seeking to tap into the growing demand for convenient, nutritious meals among Americans using weight loss drugs. Nissin announced Thursday the launch of three products in the frozen meal line, including spaghetti bolognese, in California under the Kanzen Meal name. The plan is to go national by 2027.


Japan Today
2 days ago
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Key Medicaid provision in Trump's tax cut and spending bill is found to violate Senate rules
By LISA MASCARO The Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump's tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to the chamber's procedural rules, delivering a crucial blow as Republicans rush to finish the package this week. Guidance from the parliamentarian is rarely ignored and Republican leaders are now forced to consider difficult options. Republicans were counting on big cuts to Medicaid and other programs to offset trillions of dollars in Trump tax breaks, their top priority. Earlier, the Senate's chief arbiter of its often complicated rules had advised against some GOP provisions barring certain immigrants from health care programs. Republicans scrambled to respond, with some calling for challenging, or firing, the nonpartisan parliamentarian, who has been on the job since 2012. Democrats said the decisions would devastate GOP plans. Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the Republican proposals would have meant $250 billion less for the health care program, 'massive Medicaid cuts that hurt kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities and working families.' The outcome is a setback as Senate Republicans hoped to get votes underway by week's end to meet Trump's Fourth of July deadline for passage. Trump is expected to host an event later Thursday at the White House with Americans the administration says would benefit from the bill as he hopes to energize Congress to wrap up its work on the bill. GOP leaders were already struggling to rally support for Medicaid changes that some senators said went too far and would have left millions without coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said more than 10.9 million more people would not have health care under the House-passed bill; Senate Republicans were proposing deeper cuts.. Republican leaders are relying on the Medicaid provider tax change along with other health care restrictions to save billions of dollars and offset the cost of trillions of dollars in tax cuts. Those tax breaks from Trump's first term would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, meaning a tax increase for Americans. Several GOP senators said cutting the Medicaid provider tax change in particular would hurt rural hospitals that depend on the money. Hospital organizations have warned that it could lead to hospital closures. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., among those fighting the change, said he had spoken to Trump late Wednesday and that the president told him to revert back to an earlier proposal from the House. States impose the taxes as a way to help fund Medicaid, largely by boosting the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics say the system is a type of 'laundering,' but almost every state except Alaska uses it to help provide the health care coverage. More than 80 millions people in the United States use the Medicaid program, alongside the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Republicans want to scale Medicaid back to what they say is its original mission, providing care mainly to women and children, rather than a much larger group of people. The House-passed bill would freeze the provider taxes at current levels. The Senate proposal goes deeper by reducing the tax that some states are able to impose. Senate GOP leaders can strip or revise the provisions that are in violation of the chamber's rules. But if they move ahead, those measures could be challenged in a floor vote, requiring a 60-vote threshold to overcome objections. That would be a tall order in a Senate divided 53-47 and with Democrats unified against Trump's bill. One plan Republicans had been considering would have created a rural hospital fund with $15 billion to help defray any lost revenue to the hospitals and providers. Some GOP senators said that was too much; others, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, wanted at least $100 billion. The parliamentarian has worked around the clock since late last week to assess the legislation before votes that were expected as soon as Friday. Overnight Wednesday and Thursday, the parliamentarian advised against several provisions that would have blocked access for immigrants who are not citizens to Medicaid, Medicare and other health care programs, including one that would have cut money to states that allow some migrants into Medicaid. Earlier, proposals to cut food stamps were ruled in violation of Senate rules, as was a plan to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


Japan Today
3 days ago
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Kennedy's new vaccine advisers meet for first time
Dr. Martin Kulldorf speaks during a meeting of the Advisory Committee in Immunization Practices at the CDC, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) By MIKE STOBBE and LAURAN NEERGAARD U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine advisers began their first meeting Wednesday under intense scrutiny from medical experts worried about Americans' access to lifesaving shots. First on the agenda is an awkward scenario: Kennedy already announced COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children or pregnant women, and his new advisers aren't scheduled to vote on whether they agree. Yet government scientists prepared meeting materials calling vaccination 'the best protection' during pregnancy — and said most children hospitalized for COVID-19 over the past year were unvaccinated. COVID-19 remains a public health threat, resulting in 32,000 to 51,000 U.S. deaths and more than 250,000 hospitalizations since last fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most at risk for hospitalization are seniors and children under 2 — especially infants under 6 months who could have some protection if their mom got vaccinated during pregnancy, according to the CDC's presentation. It's one signal that this week's two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices isn't business as usual. Another sign: Shortly before the meeting, a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist stepped down from the committee, bringing the panel's number to just seven. The Trump administration said Dr. Michael Ross withdrew during a customary review of members' financial holdings. The meeting opened as the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that it will continue publishing its own vaccine schedule for children but now will do so independently of the ACIP, calling it 'no longer a credible process.' The panel, created more than 60 years ago, helps the CDC determine who should be vaccinated against a long list of diseases, and when. Those recommendations have a big impact on whether insurance covers vaccinations and where they're available, such as at pharmacies. Earlier this month, Kennedy abruptly dismissed the existing 17-member expert panel and handpicked eight replacements, including several anti-vaccine voices. And a number of the CDC's top vaccine scientists — including some who lead the reporting of data and the vetting of presentations at ACIP meetings — have resigned or been moved out of previous positions. The highly unusual moves prompted a last-minute plea from a prominent Republican senator to delay this week's meeting. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs the chamber's health committee, said Monday that many of Kennedy's chosen panelists lack the required expertise and 'may even have a preconceived bias' against new vaccine technologies. In a House hearing Tuesday, Kennedy defended his purge, saying the old panel had been 'a template for medical malpractice.' Rep. Kim Schrier, a pediatrician and Democrat from Washington state, told Kennedy: 'I will lay all responsibility for every death from a vaccine-preventable illness at your feet.' The two-day meeting's agenda on was abruptly changed last week. Discussion of COVID-19 shots will open the session on Wednesday. Later in the day, the committee will take up RSV, with votes expected. On Thursday, the committee will vote on fall flu vaccinations and on the use of a preservative in certain flu shots. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be dangerous for infants. In 2023, U.S. health officials began recommending two new measures to protect infants — a lab-made antibody for newborns and a vaccine for pregnant women — that experts say likely drove an improvement in infant mortality. The committee will discuss another company's newly approved antibody shot, but the exact language for the vote was not released prior to the meeting. 'I think there may be a theme of soft-pedaling or withdrawing recommendations for healthy pregnant women and healthy children,' even though they are at risk from vaccine-preventable diseases, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University who co-authored a recent medical journal commentary criticizing the COVID-19 vaccination decision. At its June meetings, the committee usually refreshes guidance for Americans 6 month and older to get a flu shot, and helps greenlight the annual fall vaccination campaign. 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Historically, nearly all are accepted and then used by insurance companies in deciding what vaccines to cover. But the CDC currently has no director, so the committee's recommendations have been going to Kennedy, and he has yet to act on a couple recommendations ACIP made in April. The CDC director nominee, Susan Monarez, is slated to go before a Senate committee on Wednesday. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.