By Peter Rowe    Monday, October 23 2006, 12:50 AM   Forget the Food Pyramid, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidelines for a healthy diet. Today, a terrifying roster of impurities - E. coli! salmonella! listeria monocytogenes! - is decimating everything from our salads to our sandwiches.  Now that a bowl of spring vegetables could lead to an autumn of intestinal distress, you're probably not calculating how many servings of leafy greens to incorporate into your meals. Instead, you probably want to know what not to eat.  Here, then, is a list of foods that have been quarantined or recalled in recent months. These desperate gastronomic times call for desperate nutritional measures.
They call for the Food Pyramid of Terror.
GRAINS
Avoid: Long-grain rice
Why: Contains traces of genetically modified strains not approved for human consumption.
Brand name: LibertyLink
Status: The European Union has ordered tests on imported U.S. rice; Japan has suspended imports.
VEGETABLES
Avoid: Alfalfa sprouts
Why: May carry salmonella, which can cause fever, diarrhea, headache, vomiting and nausea. Fatalities sometimes occur.
Brand name: Fullei Fresh
Status: Distribution has been suspended since Aug. 18.
Avoid: Baked potato salad
Why: May contain listeria monocytogenes, which can lead to serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially among children, the frail and the elderly.
Brand name: Essencia, 16-ounce container, with "use by" date of Aug. 17, 2006.
Status: Consumers are asked to return unopened containers to Albertson's for a refund.
Avoid: Carrot juice
Why: Improper refrigeration may cause botulism, a paralytic illness that can be fatal. 

By LINDSEY TANNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   Last Updated: October 24, 2006, 07:25:49 AM PDT        CHICAGO — New research on vegetables and aging gives mothers another reason to say, "I told you so." It found that eating vegetables appears to help keep the brain young and may slow the mental decline sometimes associated with growing old. On measures of mental sharpness, older people who ate more than two servings of vegetables daily appeared about five years younger at the end of the six-year study than those who ate few or no vegetables. The research in almost 2,000 Chicago-area men and women doesn't prove that vegetables reduce mental decline, but it adds to mounting evidence pointing in that direction. The findings also echo previous research in women only. Green leafy vegetables including spinach, kale and collards appeared to be the most beneficial. The researchers said that may be because they contain healthy amounts of vitamin E, an anti-oxidant that is believed to help fight chemicals produced by the body that can damage cells. Vegetables generally contain more vitamin E than fruits, which were not linked with slowed mental decline in the study. Vegetables also are often eaten with healthy fats such as salad oils, which help the body absorb vitamin E and other anti-oxidants, said lead author Martha Clare Morris, a researcher at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. The fats from healthy oils can help keep cholesterol low and arteries clear, which both contribute to brain health. The study was published in this week's issue of the journal Neurology and funded with grants from the National Institute on Aging.

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY 

SALINAS, Calif. — Some things make Jim Lugg very nervous. As food safety chief for Fresh Express, the nation's No. 1 maker of packaged salads, Lugg looks hard at cattle, wildlife, water and humans.  All can spread the E. coli bacteria that recently tainted fresh spinach, killing three people and sickening nearly 200 others. State and federal investigators hunting for the outbreak's source said recently they found the same strain of E. coli in cattle manure on an unidentified California ranch. The ranch was right across a paved road from a spinach field.  While investigators haven't said how far apart the field and pasture are, the situation is one that Fresh Express tries to prevent.  "We wouldn't like that at all," Lugg says. Fresh Express requires that spinach or lettuce fields be several hundred feet from pastures — often more — to lessen the chance that E. coli in manure could spread to fields by cattle, wildlife or water