Maybe it was something about what they served in the White House mess in the 1990’s. Or perhaps it’s what happens to baby boomer Democrats more than a decade after leaving office. For whatever the reason former vice president Al Gore has gone vegan, just like the president with whom he once served.

Gore’s recent decision to forgo animal products surfaced as an offhand reference in a Forbes magazine piece about Hampton Creek Foods, an upscale vegan product line carried in Whole Foods. Ryan Mac’s article, which posted Saturday, chronicled how wealthy investors including Bill Gates, Tom Steyer and Vinod Khosla have poured money into the company, which hopes to take down the U.S. egg industry with offerings such as a plant-base mayonnaise.

“Newly turned vegan Al Gore is also circling,” Mac writes.

An individual familiar with Gore’s decision, who asked not to be identified because it involved a personal matter, confirmed that Gore opted a couple of months ago to become vegan. Gore’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear why Gore, one of the nation’s most visible climate activists, has given up dairy, poultry and meat products. People usually become vegan for environmental, health or ethical reasons, or a combination of these three factors.

Bill Clinton explained in a 2011 interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that he adopted a vegan diet primarily for health considerations. Known for consuming a high-fat cuisine while in office, Clinton — who was 65 at the time — said he realized he had “played Russian roulette” with his health for too long, and that since making the switch, “I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy.”

Al Gore goes vegan, with little fanfare

A computer chip that could be implanted in an obese patient’s arm to help weight-loss is being developed by scientists.

It would constantly check for fat in the blood and, when someone has eaten too much, release a hormone that sates hunger.

In tests on mice, an early version of the device led to obese creatures eating less fatty food and shedding weight.

Notably, the device stopped releasing the diet drug when they reached a normal weight.

The Swiss researchers hope that within five to ten years they will have a version the size of a coin that can be slipped under the skin of a slimmer’s arm.

The journal Nature Communications reports that the chip contains two genes that work together to keep appetite in check.

The first monitors fat levels in blood. When they get too high, it tells the second to make the appetite suppressant.

The chip’s inventor, Professor Martin Fussenegger, said chips containing other combinations of genes could be developed to tackle other illnesses.

If effective, it would provide an alternative to diet pills, which have to be taken several times a day, as well as to expensive and invasive obesity survey such as gastric banding.

New weight loss chip implant in the arm tells you when to stop eating | Mail Online

Heart-clogging trans fats were once a staple of the American diet, plentiful in baked goods, microwave popcorn and fried foods. Now, mindful of the health risks, the Food and Drug Administration is getting rid of whats left of them for good.

Condemning artificial trans fats as a threat to public health, the FDA announced Thursday it will require the food industry to phase them out.

Manufacturers already have eliminated many trans fats, responding to criticism from the medical community and to local laws. Even so, the FDA said getting rid of the rest (the average American still eats around a gram of trans fat a day) could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year.

It won’t happen right away. The agency will collect comments for two months before determining a phase-out timetable. Different foods may have different schedules, depending how easy it is to find substitutes.

“We want to do it in a way that doesnt unduly disrupt markets,” said Michael Taylor, FDAs deputy commissioner for foods. Still, he says, the food “industry has demonstrated that it is, by and large, feasible to do.”

Feds Come After Trans Fat