Food Sleuth Radio

Did you know that bottle bills have the potential to reduce the waste stream significantly, yet only nine states have beverage container deposit programs in place? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Nancy  Alderman, MES, founder and president of Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI), a non-profit organization composed of physicians...

Did you know that global food production puts enormous environmental pressure on our planet? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Ben Halpern, Ph. D, marine ecologist and conservation scientist at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. Halpern discusses his recent paper titled: “The Environmental Fo...

Did you know that mushrooms are more closely related to animals than plants? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Christopher Hobbs, Ph. D., internationally renowned botanist, mycologist, research scientist and author of Christopher Hobbs’s Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide: Boost Immunity, Improve Memory, Fight Cancer, Stop Infect...

Did you know that Black farmers faced grave injustices, racist policies and land loss while attempting to feed their families and communities? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Gail Myers, Ph. D., cultural anthropologist and creator and director of the multimedia documentary film project, Rhythms of the Land: A Love Story of Land and F...

Did you know that many chocolate products contain unsafe levels of cadmium and lead? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Tod Cooperman, MD, President, Founder, and Editor-in-Chief at ConsumerLab.com, the leading independent evaluator of dietary supplements and nutritional products. Cooperman discusses Consumer Lab’s chocolate testing res...

Did you know that organic agriculture is a key to mitigating climate change, building strong rural economies and supporting public health? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Lena Brook, M.S., Director, Food Campaigns, Healthy People & Thriving Communities Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Brook defines “organic” agri...

Did you know that alcohol consumption increases our risk for cancer? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Nigel Brockton, Ph. D., Director of Research at The American Institute for Cancer Research. Brockton dives into the research explaining how and why specific nutrients impact cancer risk, with an emphasis on the role of inflammation, a...

Did you know that many food additives allowed in the U.S. have been banned in the EU?  Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Thomas Galligan, Ph. D., Principal Scientist for Food Additives and Supplements at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Galligan explains that more than 1800 brand name food products contain titanium...

Did you know that food is a key intersectional point for health, labor, human rights, agriculture, environment, and climate change? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Alison Cohen, Advocate and Coordinator of the National Right to Food Community of Practice. Cohen exposes false narratives around poverty and hunger, and advocates for a l...

Did you know that fiber-rich, plant-based diets are key to wellness? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jill Nussinow, M.S., R.D., a.k.a. “The Veggie Queen,” culinary educator and author of multiple cookbooks.  Nussinow describes the health benefits of organic, seasonal, high-fiber, whole food plant-based eating, the ease of speedy pres...

Did you know that microplastics have infested every corner of Earth, from the highest mountains to the deepest seas? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Matt Simon , journalist, staff writer at Wired , and author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies ( https://islandpress.org/author/matt-simon )...

Did you know that the most popular New Year’s resolutions include losing weight and exercising more? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Theresa Stahl, Registered Dietitian certified in mind body medicine, and author of I’m Full: Remindful Eating Tips to Feel Great and Make Peace with Your Plate . Stahl describes her personal struggles w...

Did you know that restaurant workers have united to correct unfair labor practices in the workplace? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Teofilo Reyes, Ph. D., Chief Program Officer for Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Reyes describes the major unfair labor practices among restaurant and food service workers, including wage theft...

Did you know that most plastic packaging is not recyclable? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Martin Bourque, Executive Director, the Ecology Center, based in Berkeley, CA with international reach. Bourque pulls back the curtain on plastic recycling myths and describes meaningful policy action we can take to reduce plastic’s toxic foot...

Did you know that pesticide drift is a widespread, largely invisible problem that disproportionately harms racially marginalized, Indigenous, and working-class communities? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jill Lindsey Harrison, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado – Boulder, and author of Pesticide D...

Did you know that all the feeding assistance programs in the world won’t solve the root cause of hunger, which is poverty? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Mark Winne, community food activist, writer, and Senior Advisor to the Food Policy Networks Project at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, for his discussion of the rece...

Did you know that home gardeners have a critical role in helping to conserve the biodiversity of crops, which is crucial in combatting climate change? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Adam Alexander, award-winning film and television producer, and author of The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables (...

Did you know that large-scale off-shore marine finfish aquaculture operations pose a risk to our ocean commons? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Andrianna Natsoulas, Campaign Director, Don’t Cage Our Oceans, a national coalition working to protect our ocean commons from the risks of off-shore marine finfish aquaculture operations. Nat...

Did you know that most poultry sold in supermarkets is produced by an unjust “tournament system” that pits farmer against farmer? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Aaron Johnson , Program Manager for Challenging Corporate Power at Rural Advancement Foundational International – USA (RAFI-USA), a non-profit organization based in North Ca...

Did you know that most food labels are tightly regulated by FDA? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Lauren Swann, Registered Dietitian and food label regulation expert. The two will discuss areas of confusion, trends, and the finer points of evolving food labels and their role in consumer education, marketing, and protecting public heal...

Did you know that fracking, and other methods of fossil fuel extraction and production puts farm land, water quality and public health at risk? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Taylor Brorby, author, poet, essayist, environmentalist and author of Boys and Oil: Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land . Brorby discusses the impact of the exp...

Did you know that bottled water purchases can predict political involvement? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Manny Teodoro, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of The Profits of Distrust: Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Govern...

Did you know that the herbicide glyphosate can cross the blood-brain barrier, resulting in an increase of neuro-inflammation? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Ramon Velazquez, Ph. D., Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University....

Did you know that Monsanto knew PCBs were harmful to public health, but continued to profit from their sale? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Bart Elmore, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Environmental History, core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University, and award-winning author of  Citizen Coke: Th...

Did you know that pasture-based animal agriculture differs vastly from industrial feedlots? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jenn Wheeling, holistic rancher and regenerative farmer.  Wheeling is one of several siblings who live and operate agricultural enterprises on James Ranch in Durango, CO. She describes a resilient regional food...