Zinc
Zinc helps children thinkApril 10, 2005 Eleven-year-olds that took zinc supplements for five days each week had better mental performance after three months than their classmates, said researchers yesterday.
The children taking an extra 20mg of zinc responded more quickly and accurately on memory tasks and with more sustained attention than classmates who did not take the mineral.
Beneficial effects were seen regardless of the youngsters’ previous zinc status, said the researchers led by Dr James Penland from the US Agricultural Research Service’s Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota.
The findings, presented at the Experimental Biology meeting this week, suggest that there could be new demand for fortified foods and supplements for this age group.
Although zinc nutrition has been related to motor, cognitive and psychosocial function in very young children and adults, this is the first study of its effect in adolescents.
Zinc deficiency is not uncommon, even in nations such as the United States, and the risk is particularly high in adolescents, said Dr Penland, because they are undergoing rapid growth and often have poor eating habits. They may not consume enough zinc-rich foods like red meat, fish and grains.
Moreover the current recommended daily allowance is only 15mg for adults in the US, and up to 9.5 mg a day for men and 4-7 mg a day for women in the UK.
In the study, 111 girls and 98 boys consumed four ounces of fruit juice containing either 0, 10 or 20 mg of zinc gluconate each school day for 10 to 12 weeks. Students, their parents and teachers did not know who was receiving which, if any, zinc supplementation.
At the beginning and end of the study, students performed a battery of tasks designed to measure mental and motor skills, like attention, memory, problem-solving and hand-eye coordination.
Students, their parents, and teachers filled out questionnaires about the students’ mental, physical and social abilities and skills, school performance, and problems in any of these areas to provide a measure of psychosocial function.
Blood samples measured zinc status before and after the treatment.
Compared to the students who received no additional zinc, students who consumed an additional 20 mg zinc each day decreased reaction time on a visual memory task by 12 per cent versus 6 per cent; increased correct answers on a word recognition task by 9 per cent versus 3 per cent; and increased scores on a task requiring sustained attention and vigilance by 6 per cent versus 1 per cent.
Those who received only 10 mg a day, the US Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for this age group, did not significantly improve performance, however.
Supplementation at either the 10 mg or 20 mg did not appear to improve motor and social skills, although girls receiving the placebo experienced a 10 per cent increase in conduct problems during the study while the behaviour of girls receiving any level of zinc supplementation remained unchanged, reported the researchers.
Previous studies have shown that zinc is needed for growth and immune function and may be important for eye-hand coordination and reasoning in very young children. It also appears to influence memory, muscle strength and endurance in adults.
Organic Food Is Safer
Major Study of Pesticide Residues Shows Organic Food Is Safer May 7 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Newswire Following is a statement by Environmental Working Group (EWG) President Ken Cook: “”Conventionally grown food has significantly higher levels of pesticides, and is contaminated with residues of multiple pesticides, far more frequently than organic food. And those lower pesticide levels translate into lower risk of cancer and other health effects for consumers who eat organic food, particularly children.”"
“”These are the key findings of the first detailed study comparing pesticide residues on tens of thousands of samples of organic and conventional foods. The study also found that farming methods designed to use pesticides more sparingly also result in food residue levels that are lower than in regular food.
“”In recent years, the federal government has restricted or banned a number of pesticides out of a growing scientific recognition of the special risk these chemicals pose to children’s health. This study makes clear that the entire food supply can and should move in the direction of lower pesticide residues and thus lower health risks. The organic food industry is leading the way with a safer alternative.
“”Consumers know what to eat if they want to cut back on fat, calories or cholesterol. Now they know they should buy organic if they want to reduce pesticides in the foods they eat and feed their children.”"
The study was published in the current (May, 2002) issue of Food Additives and Contaminants, a scientific journal. It was authored by Brian Baker, Charles Benbrook, Edward Groth and Karen Lutz Benbrook.
EWG, a nonprofit environmental research organization, has published dozens of studies on the risks of pesticides to children.
Soup Diet Makes Weight Loss Easy
(HealthScoutNews) — Dieting? Here’s a tip from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition — have a bowl of soup.
That advice comes by way of a study from the nutrition department at Pennsylvania State University. Researchers already knew that watered-down foods with a “”low caloric density”" could fill you up just as well as foods that had more calories in every spoonful.
But what if the food and water were consumed separately? To test the notion, one group of people ate a bowl of soup, and another group ate a casserole made with the same ingredients as the soup, then drank a glass of water.
The results: people who ate the soup were full after 1,209 calories. The people who had the casserole with the water on the side kept going until they had reached 1,657 calories.
Olive Oil Boosts Heart Health
FDA Announces: Olive Oil May Boost Heart Health November 8, 2004 Food containing olive oil can carry labels saying they may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, the government says, citing limited evidence from a dozen scientific studies about the benefits of monounsaturated fats.
As long as people don’t increase the number of calories they consume daily, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed a reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease when people replace foods high in saturated fat with the monounsaturated fat in olive oil.
That means a change as simple as sauteing food in two tablespoons of olive oil instead of butter may be healthier for your heart.
“”Since CHD is the No. 1 killer of both men and women in the United States, it is a public health priority to make sure that consumers have accurate and useful information on reducing their risk,”" Lester M. Crawford, acting FDA commissioner, said in a prepared statement.
“”It’s good news for consumers,”" said Bob Bauer, president of the North American Olive Oil Association, which sought the qualified health claim on Aug. 28, 2003. “”Olive oil is a healthy product to help them fight heart disease.”"
Recent research has underscored the heart benefits from so-called Mediterranean diets high in unsaturated fats from vegetable oil, nuts and such fish as salmon and tuna. Mortality rates dropped by more than 50 percent among elderly Europeans who stuck to such diets and led healthy lifestyles, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September.
The North American Olive Oil Association included 88 publications to back its claim for the heart-healthy benefits of olive oil. The group wanted to make the claim for monounsaturated fats contained in just one tablespoon of olive oil per day.
Olive oil and certain food containing olive oil can now indicate that “”limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about two tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil,”" the FDA concluded.
“”I think FDA just took a more conservative view,”" Bauer said. Manufacturers waited for the FDA’s precise wording before revising labels. “”I expect, over time, most every container of olive oil will have this,”" he said.
Already, American restaurants and consumers drive $450 million in olive oil sales per year. Supermarket sales in 2003 accounted for 132 million pounds of olive oil, up by nearly one-third over the past six years. Bauer said he expects the label change to spur a larger uptick in sales.
According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease caused 502,189 deaths — or one in five deaths — in 2001, the most current statistic available. Another 13.2 million Americans that year survived the heart attacks, chest pains and other ailments caused by coronary heart disease.
Along with lowering cholesterol, cutting out cigarettes and exercising, the group says Americans can boost heart health by eating foods low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. An American Heart Association spokeswoman declined comment on the FDA’s action until it reviews the health claim.
The FDA discounted most of the submitted studies because the methodology made it difficult to tease out the effect of the monounsaturated fats in olive oil. Of a dozen studies that survived the cut, four were the most persuasive.
Thirty-three healthy young American men ate diets high in saturated fats from butter or cocoa butter, olive oil’s monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats from soybean oil. The soybean and olive oil groups significantly lowered total and bad LDL cholesterol.
In another trial involving 21 middle-aged Spanish women, those with diets in which olive oil replaced 8 percent of total daily calories from saturated fats lowered their total and bad cholesterol while significantly boosting good HDL cholesterol.
Forty-one young Spanish men lowered total and bad LDL cholesterol with an olive oil diet. Levels of good cholesterol did not drop in the olive oil group, as they did for youthful peers who replaced calories from saturated fats with carbohydrates.
And 22 healthy, middle-aged Spanish men with slightly elevated cholesterol counts were put on a four-week diet high in saturated fat. Those who switched to diets high in olive oil and those who replaced calories from saturated fats with carbohydrates lowered total and bad LDL cholesterol levels.
It’s the third time the FDA granted a qualified health claim for conventional food. In March, the agency said “”supportive but not conclusive research”" shows eating 1.5 ounces of walnuts per day may reduce coronary heart disease risk. In September, it issued a similar qualified claim for the heart-healthy benefits of omega-3 fatty acids.
The FDA press release: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01129.html
Skip Breakfast, Get Fat
Skip Breakfast, Get Fat
But more meals, if smaller, could make you thinner, study finds
FRIDAY, July 11 (HealthDayNews) — It’s a prime piece of conventional wisdom: Eat right before you go to bed and you’ll get fat.
But new research suggests that late eaters are no more likely to be overweight than anyone else. It’s what you consume the rest of the day — especially in the morning — that counts.
Americans who regularly skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be fat, researchers found. But, in good news for the nibblers among us, those who eat four or more meals a day are actually on the thinner side.
“”We tend to eat because of external cues instead of internal cues — we eat until the plate’s clean. If the plate has a lot less food on it, perhaps you’ll be eating less,”" says Ruth Kava, director of nutrition with the American Council on Science and Health.
Researchers launched their study because experts don’t fully understand how eating habits — such as the timing and frequency of meals — are tied to obesity, says study co-author Yunsheng Ma, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The researchers examined a national cholesterol study that took place from 1994 to 1998. A total of 499 people reported five times a year on what they ate over 24 hours.
The findings of the study appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Ma and his colleagues found people who ate more than three times a day were about half as likely to be fat as those who ate three or fewer times a day. Ma suspects the difference may have something to do with fewer spikes in blood sugar levels among the frequent eaters.
Insulin levels go up when blood sugar rises, contributing to hunger and the buildup of fat, Ma says. Similar factors may be at work among those who frequently eat breakfast or dinner away from home, he says. The study found they were 4.5 times more likely to be fat.
Someone who eats breakfast at home might settle for a small, convenient meal, Kava says. “”But if you go out, there’s all kinds of tempting things like bacon and eggs and hash browns. Maybe you tend to indulge a little bit more. You don’t have to do the work or clean up.”"
And what about the link between skipping breakfast and tipping the scales?
“”You have not broken the fast soon enough to only need a moderate amount of calories,”" says Gail Frank, a professor of nutrition at California State University at Long Beach and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “”You are starving. How does the normal person respond? They eat, and they keep eating to compensate.”"
As for the study’s rebuttal of the time-honored belief in the fattening properties of late-night meals, Ma says more research is needed to confirm that finding.
But it makes sense, Frank says, and counteracts the “”myth”" about the hazards of midnight munching.
The body continues digesting through the night, she says, even when people are asleep and not active. “”The body doesn’t know when the lights go off,”" she says.
SOURCES: Yunsheng Ma, Ph.D., assistant professor, epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester; Ruth Kava, Ph.D, R.D. director, nutrition, American Council on Science and Health, New York City; Gail Frank, DrPH, R.D., professor, nutrition, California State University at Long Beach, and spokeswoman, American Dietetic Association; July 1, 2003, American Journal of Epidemiology
Learn About Grains
Grains By Jennifer A. Wickes
The proper term, in reference to grains, is cereal grains. The word “”cereal”" comes from Ceres, a pre-Roman goddess of agriculture. Cereal includes any plant from the grass family that produces an edible seed.
Cereals are inexpensive, have an available source of protein and the highest concentration of carbohydrates compared with any other food. Varieties Barley
Barley dates back to the Stone Ages. It is used in recipes such as bread, cereal, and soups. Most barley in the western world is now used for two reasons, for making beer and whiskey, and for animal fodder. Bulgur Wheat
Originating from the Middle East, this is wheat kernels which have been steamed, dried and crushed. Couscous
A staple in North Africa. Couscous is derived from semolina. Can be cooked and added to milk to make a porridge, fruits and honey can be added to make a dessert or you can mix a dressing into it and eat it like a salad. Kasha
This is roasted buckwheat grains. Millet
Millet is a staple grain for over a 1/3 of the world’s population, particularly in Asia and Africa. The United States uses millet almost exclusively for fodder and birdseed. Millet is rich in protein with a bland flavor, so it takes well to be cooked with other foods and spices. You prepare millet like rice, in boiling water, to make into a hot cereal or some sort of pilaf. Ground millet is used in puddings, breads and cakes. You can find millet in natural food stores, as well as Asian markets. Oats
In the 1700s, England would feed oats to their horses, yet the Scottish used to eat oats every day! Polenta / Cornmeal
Dried corn kernels that have been ground to a powder. Quinoa
A staple to the Incas. Contains the most protein than any other grain. It also contains eight essential amino acids. Quinoa is also high in unsaturated fats and lower in carbohydrates. You need to cook Quinoa like rice, and it has been compared in flavor to couscous. Can be found in natural food stores. Rice
Rice has been cultivated throughout Asia since at least 8000 BC. There are also over 7000 varieties. Rice contains iron, calcium and B- complex vitamins. Risotto
An Italian rice which is cooked as rice and can be served with a variety of meats and vegetables. Italian Arborio rice is usually used in the preparation of risotto. Rye
Rye contains less gluten that any other flour, therefore, all rye breads tend to be dense. There are a variety of different ryes, all of which are found at Natural Food Stores: medium, light, dark and pumpernickel. Sorghum
The third largest grain in the entire world, the US only use it as fodder. The only thing the US use sorghum for when speaking of human consumption, sorghum molasses, which is used to sweeten baked goods. Spelt
A cereal grain native to southern Europe, where it has been used for thousands of years. It has a nutty flavor, and can be used in lieu of wheat flour in recipes if a person is gluten intolerant. This grain can also be found in Natural Food Stores. Teff
A cereal grain native to Ethiopia, but is currently being harvested in Idaho. This grain has a nutty flavor, is high in protein, carbohydrates, calcium and iron. It can be found in Natural Food Stores. Triticale
Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye. It has more protein and less gluten than wheat. It comes in berries, flakes and flour. You can find this in Natural Food Stores. Triticale is usually used to make casseroles, hot cereals and pilafs. Due to the low gluten content, breads made from this grain make loaves to be very heavy, therefore using
Vitamin D More Essential for Bone Health Than Calcium
Vitamin D More Important Than Calcium For bone Health November 9, 2005 Consuming more than 800 mg of calcium per day may be unnecessary for bone health if the body has enough vitamin D, say Icelandic researchers.
Using food consumption records from more than 900 adults, the researchers determined that sufficient vitamin D levels can ensure an ideal level of parathyroid hormone (PTH) – a measure of calcium metabolism – even when calcium intake is less than 800 mg per day. But consuming more than 1200 mg of calcium daily is not enough to maintain ideal PTH if the vitamin D status is insufficient. The study is part of a growing body of work that points to the important role of vitamin D, and not just calcium alone, in bone health. Bone health is a growing concern as the numbers affected by osteoporosis continue to rise, and an increasing elderly population suggests that these will grow further in the future. In Europe, osteoporosis causes around 1.1 million fractures each year. In light of recent research, and predicting future health problems, some researchers have called for recommended intake of vitamin D to be raised but the adequate amounts needed in the diet are still not known. The new study, published in today
Whole Grains Promote Healthy Weight
Bakers, Food makers and nutritionists are warning about the amazing popularity of the Atkins diet have a new tool in their fight against this food fad in a new study that reveals an inverse assocation between whole grains and weight gain.
It found that while women who ate a large amount of refined grain foods were more likely to be obese, those with the greatest whole grain consumption weighed less and are less likely to gain weight.
The study, published in November’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol 78, no 5, pp 920-927), investigated the relation between intake of dietary fibre and whole- or refined-grain products with weight gain over time.
They used a prospective cohort study on more than 74,000 US female nurses, aged 38-63 years in 1984 and free of known cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes at baseline. Their dietary habits were assessed in 1984, 1986, 1990, and 1994 with validated food-frequency questionnaires.
Average weight, body mass index, long-term weight changes, and the odds ratio of developing obesity (BMI of 30) according to change in dietary intake were recorded.
The researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that women who consumed more whole grains consistently weighed less than women who consumed less whole grains.
Over 12 years, those with the greatest increase in intake of dietary fibre gained an average of 1.52 kg less than did those with the smallest increase in intake of dietary fibre independent of body weight at baseline and age.
Women in the highest quintile of dietary fibre intake had a 49 per cent lower risk of major weight gain than did women in the lowest quintile.
The team concludes that “”weight gain was inversely associated with the intake of high-fibre, whole-grain foods but positively related to the intake of refined-grain foods, which indicated the importance of distinguishing whole-grain products from refined-grain products to aid in weight control”".
Science Begins to Add Weight to CLA
The flurry of activity in CLA applications is being backed by a growing body of research to support the ingredient, particularly for its effects on weight loss. A review published in this month’s Journal of Nutrition supports conjugated linoleic acid’s action on weight management, concluding that it is at least in part due to regulation of glucose and fatty acid uptake and metabolism.
Conjugated linoleic acid is the common name of a group of fatty acids found in dairy products and meat. CLA isomers have been studied for their action on an impressive range of diseases, including cancer, atherosclerosis, obesity, and immune function. However as scientists begin to reveal their effects on reduction of body fat, food makers are increasingly looking at the ingredient for the valuable slimming market.
In Canada, where many of the patents for CLA are held, the dairy industry has long been studying the production of high-CLA milk. In Europe, a research centre in Ireland is studying the compound which could add significant value to its dairy industry, while in Italy, Techno Foods introduced a strawberry flavoured yoghurt naturally rich in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) and omega-3 fatty acids this summer.
Specific CLA isomers have been shown to prevent the development of obesity in certain rodent and pig models and this has been attributed mainly to trans-10, cis-12 CLA, both in vivo and in vitro, write the University of North Carolina researchers in the review. However, CLA’s ability to modulate human obesity remains controversial because data from clinical trials using mixed isomers are conflicting.
In vitro studies by the team demonstrated that while trans-10, cis-12 CLA prevents triglyceride accumulation in human cells, cis-9, trans-11 CLA increases triglyceride content. The team concluded that the isomers’ regulation of glucose and metabolism must partly explain its mechanism on human fat.
The news is also good for supplement marketers who recently learned of research carried out by Cognis backing the long-term safety of its Tonalin CLA.
Probiotics for Health
Probiotics for Health By S.K. Dash, Ph.D.
Many health-conscious consumers today want to know when they should take probiotics. They ask whether they should wait until they are sick. If so, they ask, which illnesses respond best to probiotics? Or should they take a preventive approach and take probiotics before they get sick? What about use of probiotics with antibiotics? Today, there is no doubt that taking probiotics is as essential as a multivitamin to your health. So my reply to such questions is that a daily supplement should always be taken to maintain healthy immune and digestive function — but the supplement amount should be increased during times of stress and illness. But let’s start at the beginning.
Probiotics — What Are They?
The concept of ingesting live microorganisms for the purpose of improving one’s intestinal health and general well being can be traced back well before the beginning of the Twentieth Century to earlier eras when most foods were nonrefrigerated and instead preserved with fermentation. But the current practice of using beneficial organisms to improve and sustain health is now referred to as probiotic supplementation. Although numerous types of bacteria (and yeasts) are currently being marketed as probiotic cultures throughout the world, the two most commonly used ones are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
Probiotics — A Health Essential?
Consumers rarely consider how essential healthy bacterial populations are to their health. But the fact is that a healthy ratio of beneficial to pathogenic bacteria residing within the gastrointestinal tract is essential to good health and influences not only digestive health but also immune function, detoxification, and women’s vaginal health. Unfortunately, great numbers of people today no longer have optimally balanced ratios of beneficial to pathogenic bacteria in their body, thus allowing the “”bad guys”" to gain the upper hand. This is very dangerous and one of the reasons that digestive illnesses, as well as other types of illnesses, are becoming so prevalent. Medically prescribed antibiotic use is certainly one of the most important causes of this change in our natural flora, with travel to foreign lands a close second. But beyond these detrimental impacts on our gastrointestinal health, we face many other daunting challenges to our bacterial balance. Unless one consumes organic dairy products, for example, one is almost certainly consuming traces of antibiotics and sulfa drugs, which have a disruptive effect on bowel ecology. Our highly processed food supply has also denied our bodies the opportunity to ingest beneficial bacteria as we once did through food fermentation (widely used before refrigeration). Our water also tends to be highly chlorinated which, although important from a public health perspective, has drawbacks for individual health when it comes to adversely impacting our body’s bacterial populations. When the body’s bacterial populations are upset, many kinds of illness can result. So for daily maintenance and in times of illness it just makes sense to use a quality probiotic formula.
Prevention and Treatment of Diarrhea and Constipation: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea can be attributed in part to imbalances in intestinal microflora. Bifidobacteria have been used to successfully treat intestinal disorders and in the prevention of rotaviral diarrhea in children and adults. In fact, taking a probiotic formula with antibiotics is now considered to be standard medicine in many countries. But antibiotics and probiotics must be taken a few hours apart. Constipation is a significant problem for many people, especially the elderly. Researchers have shown that enhancing Bifidobacteria in the large intestine of constipated elderly individuals provides a significant laxative effect.
Ulcer Therapy: If you’re taking antibiotics to treat your ulcer, you should be using probiotics along with your doctor’s prescribed antibiotics. That’s the message from researchers reporting in the February 2001 issue of Digestion. Frequently, nausea, bloating, diarrhea, taste disturbances and loss of appetite are side effects from use of antibiotics to eradicate Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium thought to be the causative agent in gastric ulcers. This latest study involving 120 ulcer patients shows that persons given both antibiotics and probiotics experienced markedly reduced incidence of bloating, diarrhea and taste disturbances compared to persons given only antibiotics, and most persons given the natural remedy experienced no side effects.
Enhanced Immune Function: Most of our immune cells are produced within the gastrointestinal tract and much of our protection against orally ingested pathogens (such as salmonella) is the result of a healthy gastrointestinal environment. There is perhaps no greater protection against such food-borne pathogens than the use of probiotics to sustain this healthy environment. Recent studies show that Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria can stimulate both general immunity and also specific antibodies to certain pathogens.
Lactose Intolerance: Dairy foods are a very important part of a healthy diet, but many of us suffer from some symptoms of lactose intolerance. Studies have shown that strains of Lactobaccilli and Bifidobacteria reduce symptoms of lactose malabsorption.
Establishment of Healthy Flora: in Babies and Infants Premature infants generally take longer to establish a characteristic intestinal flora, which can render them more susceptible to certain intestinal infections. Various strains of Bifidobacterium administered to premature infants results in populations of beneficial bacteria becoming established more quickly in their intestines compared to a control group. You will also likely find that children susceptible to middle ear infections enjoy better health when they are given probiotics (DDS®-Junior Probiotic for Children).
Editor’s Note: Dr. S. K. Dash is among the world’s leading experts today in the field of probiotics. Dr. Dash is founder of America’s leading probiotic company UAS Labs.
See the full unabridged version of this article at www.freedompressonline.com.
References Armuzzi, A., et al. “”Effect of Lactobacillus GG supplementation on antibiotic-associated gastrointestinal side effects during Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy: a pilot study.”" Digestion, 2001;63:1