Is cooking with beef fat REALLY healthier than seed oils? That's what wellness gurus claim - now DR EMILY LEEMING delivers her surprising verdict
The conventional wisdom tells us butter, lard and beef tallow (dripping) – produced from rendering beef fat – are high in 'bad' saturated fats that raise cholesterol and heart disease risk; while seed oils, such as rapeseed and sunflower, contain healthier fats that can reduce cholesterol and protect the heart.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
RFK Jr wants Canada to pardon 400 ostriches
The Canadian government ordered 400 ostriches to be culled after they were exposed to bird flu, but U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to save the flock. Universal Ostrich Farms in British Columbia was ordered to cull the flightless birds after avian flu was detected last December, CBC reported. A month later, 69 birds died. A court battle has ensued, with the farm owners arguing the ostriches should be kept alive to be studied for potential treatments. Although the court rejected the initial argument, the federal appeals court last month paused the order as it reviewed the matter; the court heard arguments in the case this week. Amid the legal challenges the birds have found an unlikely ally to the south: RFK Jr. 'The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing to try to better understand the virus,' a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Politico. The health secretary wrote a letter to the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in May, urging the agency not to go through with plans to eradicate the flock and instead test the birds' antibodies: 'We believe significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment at the Universal Ostrich Farm.' The cull was ordered as part of a so-called 'stamping-out' policy, used to mitigate the risk of the virus spreading to humans or animals, according to the agency. 'Allowing a domestic poultry flock known to be exposed to [bird flu] to remain alive means a potential source of the virus persists. It increases the risk of reassortment or mutation of the virus, particularly with birds raised in open pasture where there is ongoing exposure to wildlife,' the agency explained in a May release after the federal court dismissed the farm owners' applications for judicial review. This week, Kennedy — along with Trump's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and billionaire John Catsimatidis — sent letters to Prime Minister Mark Carney pressing his government to alter its policy, Politico reported. According to CBC, Katie Pasitney, whose parents own the farm, thanked the trio for their efforts, saying on Tuesday: "I guess we'll just see where that goes from here because we do know that Dr. Oz and RFK are very passionate about this, just as well as John Catsimatidis." In court on Tuesday, Umar Sheikh, a lawyer for the farm owners, similarly argued that the government's policy was too strict, noting that hundreds of ostriches still exhibit no symptoms of avian flu. Only two birds tested positive for the virus before the cull was ordered, he said. "We would ask questions such as why 100 percent destruction needs to occur based on 0.5 percent confirmed infection?" Sheikh asked the court, according to CBC. Aileen Jones, a lawyer for the agency, argued that the court has already determined the 'stamping-out policy is a reasonable policy,' the outlet reported.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The healthcare sector is unloved – this trust is a prime example
Questor is The Telegraph's stock-picking column, helping you decode the markets and offering insights on where to invest. Questor believes the healthcare sector is looking unloved at the moment. Sven Borho, the co-manager of Worldwide Healthcare Trust, the largest investment trust focused on the sector, agrees. In fact, he thinks the sector has been out of favour for most of the past decade. Borho puts the blame for this squarely on the US debate around drug pricing, and while Questor agrees that it has had a big impact on sentiment, so too has the shift from the low inflation/low interest rate environment that prevailed before 2022. While there had been mutterings about drug prices for a long time, it was a tweet by Hillary Clinton in September 2015, who was then on the campaign trail, that sparked an upset in the sector. She was promising to tackle price-gouging in the speciality drug market, which set the ball rolling on a series of measures from both sides of the US political divide. Recently, this has culminated in President Trump's May 2025 executive order aimed at bringing US prices for patented drugs down to the levels charged in other countries. Last week's threat of a 200pc tariff on imports of drugs manufactured outside the US is another complicating factor. However, Borho feels that investors have tended to be overly negative in response to threats to control drug prices. He also observes that, historically, Republican presidents have been good for the sector. The Trump administration's choices for the heads of the various Federal healthcare bodies may have been controversial, but Borho's sense is that bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are becoming more efficient. In recent years, the trust's high exposure to biotech companies has weighed on its performance. As outlined in this column's recent appraisal of RTW Biotech Opportunities, the biotech sector suffers not only from political pressures but a low sentiment from an investor base currently wary of loss-making and unproven companies – unfortunately, the bread and butter of the biotech industry. Nevertheless, Borho is keen to stick with this approach as he believes that, over the long run, capturing the benefits of innovation is key to generating outsized returns. He points out that biotech companies were responsible for almost two thirds of all clinical trials that began last year and most – 85pc – of the novel products approved. At the same time, many big pharmaceutical companies face the prospect of lucrative products coming off patent and these companies need to acquire promising biotech businesses to maintain their revenue lines. Relative to its benchmark, Worldwide Healthcare is underweight big pharma, which was 40pc of the MSCI index at the end of June but 18pc of the trust's portfolio – it had a corresponding overweight exposure to biotech. However, there are also exciting developments in areas beyond biotech. Over Worldwide Healthcare's latest financial year, some of the strongest contributors to its returns were medical equipment companies, including Boston Scientific and Intuitive Surgical. Boston Scientific has been making great strides in the cardiovascular field, while Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci robotic surgery equipment is delivering better surgical outcomes for patients. Medical technology and devices accounted for a third of the trust's portfolio at the end of June. Worldwide Healthcare turned 30 in April, and was one the best-performing trusts over that period, offering a total return of about 4,000pc. However, over the past five years, the trust has lost money for shareholders. Unsurprisingly, that has put pressure on its share price discount to net asset value. The board says that it will buy back stock when the discount is wider than 6pc, but for most of the past 12 months the discount has been in double digits, which opened the door to activist Saba to build a 5pc stake in the trust. The board has stepped up the pace of share buybacks and both the discount and Saba's stake appear to be coming down now. Questor agrees with the manager that there is plenty to get excited about in the healthcare sector over the next few years. Borho foresees a time when most cancer is treated as a chronic disease and much is curable. He predicts advances in the area of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to help improve and extend lives and hopes new gene therapies will cure rare diseases. He also thinks that artificial intelligence will help guide diagnoses, relieving pressure on GPs. Other trusts with a similar remit have done a better job of navigating this difficult period for the sector, so the big question is whether Worldwide Healthcare is the best way to take advantage of this theme. While the jury is out, the successful history of the trust can't be ignored. Questor says: hold Ticker: WWH Share price: £3.07
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Urgent warning to parents over toxic kids' toys sold at Walmart
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has urged parents to look over their children's bikes following a recall over fears of injury or death from lead poisoning. Around 200 units of SPPTTY Kids 14- and 18-inch bicycles were recalled on July 10 after lead levels exceeded the federal lead content ban. The bicycles are pink with brown seat covers, brown handlebars, brown pedals and brown baskets. Each of them also have 'SPPTTY' and 'New Sport Bike' printed on downtubes. The affected products were sold on Walmart 's website from August 2024 through December 2024 for around $85. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has advised consumers to stop using the bikes immediately and contact Shenzhen Yihuachuang Technology for a refund. Owners of the bikes are requested to disassemble them, take a photo, and send it to lishkjie@ before disposing of the pieces. As of now, no injuries or deaths related to the recalled bikes have been reported. The bikes were sold on Walmart's website from August 2024 through December 2024 for around $85 'This recall serves as an important reminder to parents and caregivers to ensure that young children have routine screening for lead exposure,' said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Debra Bogen. 'Early identification of elevated lead levels can reduce the harms from lead exposure, including its harm to children's behavior and development.' Experts suggest parents and caregivers bring children to health care providers to discuss the possibility of blood lead testing. Children under age six have the greatest risk of health problems from lead exposure, which could lead to brain or nervous system damage. While lead-related recalls are typically uncommon, there have already been multiple products recalled from dangerous exposure. More than 25,000 containers of baby food sold at Target were recalled in April over a lead contamination. Publix voluntarily recalled baby food a month later over the same fear, after the products were distributed to all eight states of operation. Walmart has grappled with a string of product recalls by officials this year. Several products sold at Walmart stores nationwide have already been recalled this year A customer shops for toys at a Walmart Supercenter in Denver, Colorado One of the company's first recalls of the year was for over 12,000 units of chicken broth sold nationwide following concerns of deadly bacteria contamination. Duda Farm Fresh Foods pulled its Marketside celery sticks from Walmart stores in 29 states in April due to a potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Other recalled products sold at Walmart include popular iron supplements, water bottles that left shoppers with permanent vision loss, and Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettucine pasta, which resulted in three deaths from listeria contamination. A listeria infection usually causes fever, headache and diarrhea in most people, but it can be deadly for pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and those with weak immune systems.
