"More than 290 people from 39 states have become ill in the food poisoning outbreak and 46 have been hospitalized," according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The batches of Peter Pan peanut butter which may contain salmonella all had a product code on the lid beginning with 2111. The Great Value brand peanut butter made for retailer Wal-Mart, which is also manufactured in the same plant and also has the code 2111 on the lid, may also be contaminated, warned the FDA.

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Pregnancy and alcohol. One alcoholic drink is one too many for pregnant women, especially during the first trimester. A report from the University of Bristol in the UK cited negative long-term side effects on the mental health of the baby, even with one drink a week, and more evident among female children. The study was done on 9,000 children from age 4 to 9. Heavy drinking had been known to cause severe physical and mental defects in them.

Since science has not found a "safe cut-off" for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, the recommendation is for pregnant women not to drink alcoholic beverages at all during pregnancy.

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Pregnancy and fish. The US National Institute of Health reported a study in The Lancet medical journal that showed "children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none."

Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, an NIH researcher who led the study, said "seafood is a key source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for fetal brain development."

The research studied children of more than 8,000 British women followed-up by the University of Bristol "to determine how kids fared if their mothers ate more than 12 ounces – about two average meals." These children, were found "to have more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication and social skills as toddlers, behaved better at age 7, and earned higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, compared to those whose mothers ate lesser amounts."

In their statement in Lancet, Drs. Gary Myers and Philip Davidson of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York wrote, "These results highlight the importance of including fish in the maternal diet during pregnancy and lend support to the popular opinion that fish is brain food."

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend that everyone should eat none of large fish with high mercury levels – shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish – and no more than 6 ounces (170 grams) a week of albacore tuna because of mercury. The smaller fish varieties in the market have a lot less and acceptable level, which is deemed safe.

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Vitamin C boosts phytoestrogen. A University of Southern California research shows that Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) "may boost the effectiveness of phytoestrogen found in soy (and estrogen in general) to inhibit the oxidation of LDL, the bad cholesterol…oxidation of LDL encourages arteriosclerosis", known as hardening of the arteries, that leads to the fatty deposits in the inside wall of the arteries all over the body, like the coronary arteries of the heart and the carotid arteries and cerebral arteries brain, etc.

In this study, "increasing the amounts of three phytoestrogens (genistein, daidzein and equol) inhibited LDL oxidation and that this protective effect was even more powerful when ascorbic acid (vitamin C) was present too." Genistein and daidzein are the isoflavones present in soy and soy products.