Food & Nutrition
Making snack food choices
People who are asked whether they would choose between a “good” snack and a “bad” snack might not follow their intentions when the snacks arrive. In an article in the September/October 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Dutch researchers found that there is a substantial inconsistency between healthful snack choice intentions and actual behavior.
Participants were asked about their intentions in choosing among four snacks: an apple, a banana, a candy bar and a molasses waffle. About half of the participants indicated they would choose the apple or banana—a “healthy” snack. But when presented, one week later, with the actual snacks, 27% switched to the candy bar or waffle. Over 90% of the unhealthy-choice participants stuck with their intentions and chose the unhealthy snack. The study included 585 participants who were office employees recruited in their worksite cafeterias.
Although intentions are often tightly linked to what people really do, it doesn’t always work that way. One explanation is that intentions are usually under cognitive control while actual choices are often made impulsively, even unconsciously.
Fruits and Vegetables, Making it Easier to Eat More
With back-to-school time just around the corner, the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is calling upon Moms to promote health and combat the national childhood obesity epidemic by focusing on including more fruits and vegetables in meals and snacks. To help Moms instill good eating habits and fight unhealthy food messages on television and in popular culture, PBH is unveiling new sets of strategies and tools for Moms and their families both online and in the retail setting.
In a survey conducted earlier this year, Moms expressed deep concern about how obesity might affect their kids now and when they are adults—and for good reason. Data shows one in three children in this country are overweight and news reports point to scores of American children taking drugs to treat high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and other conditions related to obesity. According to the same survey, many Moms also feel society is too full of messages encouraging unhealthy eating; a sentiment underscored by recent government reports of increases in product placements in television story lines, and a spend of $1.6 billion by the food and beverage industry to market soda, sugary cereal, and other less nutritious foods to kids.
EU says safety of cloned animal products uncertain
The European Union’s top food safety agency said on Thursday cloned animal products may not be safe and further study was needed.
“It is clear there are significant animal health and welfare issues for surrogate mothers and clones that can be more frequent and severe than for conventionally bred animals,” Vittorio Silano, chair of EFSA’s Scientific Committee, told reporters.
“For cattle and pigs, food safety concerns are considered unlikely. But we must acknowledge that the evidence base is still small. We would like to have a broader data base and we need further clarification.”
Soy-based foods may lower sperm count: study
Eating a half serving a day of soy-based foods could be enough to significantly lower a man’s sperm count, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The study is the largest in humans to look at the relationship between semen quality and a plant form of the female sex hormone estrogen known as phytoestrogen, which is plentiful in soy-rich foods.
“What we found was men that consume the highest amounts of soy foods in this study had a lower sperm concentration compared to those who did not consume soy foods,” said Dr. Jorge Chavarro of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Human Reproduction.
Many people in US lack optimally fluoridated water
Increased usage of community water fluoridation has been credited with markedly reducing the prevalence and severity of tooth decay in the US in the past 60 years, but new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that in many states the availability of optimally fluoridated water is lacking.
Overall, the percentage of the US population served by public water systems who received optimally fluoridated water rose from 62.1 percent in 1992 to 65.0 percent in 2000 and to 69.2 percent in 2006. The Healthy People 2010 objective is to increase the percentage to 75 percent.
However, the findings, which appear in Friday’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC, also indicate high variability between states in the percentage of persons receiving optimally fluoridated water.
The Hazards of Too Much Water
We’ve all been told it’s important to drink plenty of fluids during exercise. But now it seems too much water can be very dangerous. So which is right? Both. Good hydration is important, but overhydration can be hazardous, even lethal. Common sense and moderation can help protect you from both extremes, reports the July 2008 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
Dehydration increases the risk of muscle cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke during exercise in warm weather. And even in mild weather, dehydration can leave exercisers groggy for hours afterward. When the hazards of dehydration became apparent, experts began to encourage drinking fluids during exercise. Guidelines were formulated to meet the needs of elite male athletes whose high-intensity exercise produced lots of fluid loss in sweat. As a result, athletes began to increase fluid intake, and some drank too much, leading to water intoxication and hyponatremia (low blood sodium levels). Hundreds of cases and a number of deaths have been recorded in medical journals.
Caution is justified, but it’s not easy to drink enough to get into trouble. The typical victim of water intoxication is a runner who is out on a marathon course for over four hours and who consumes enough fluids to gain weight during the race.
Red wine compound seen protecting heart from aging
A natural compound found in red wine may protect the heart against the effects of the aging process, researchers said on Tuesday.
In their study, mice were given a diet supplemented with the compound known as resveratrol starting at their equivalent of middle age until old age.
These mice experienced changes in their gene activity related to aging in a way very similar to mice that were placed on a so-called calorie restriction diet that slows the aging process by greatly cutting dietary energy intake.
Whole milk is effective and cost-effective as oral contrast agent
An item commonly found in many homes – whole milk – is just as effective, costs less and is easier on the patient than a diluted (0.1%) barium suspension that is also commonly used as an oral contrast agent in conjunction with CT to examine the gastrointestinal tract, a new study finds.
The study included 215 patients undergoing abdominal and pelvic CT, said Chi Wan Koo, MD, lead author of the study. All patients were given an IV contrast media; 115 were also given whole milk as an oral contrast agent; 100 received a 0.1% barium suspension. Two radiologists reviewed all the images and scored them based on degree of bowel distension and bowel wall visibility. Adequate bowel distension is necessary to optimize resolution of the bowel wall and contents, said Dr. Koo.
The study found that the images taken of patients who were given whole milk were just as useful as the images that were taken of patients given the diluted barium, she said.
Malnutrition often missed in hospitalized elderly
Many doctors and nurses may fail to recognize certain key signs of malnutrition in older hospital patients, according to a study conducted at a hospital in Australia.
Researchers found that of 100 elderly patients at a major Melbourne hospital, 30 percent were malnourished, while 61 percent were at risk of becoming so. However, their doctors and nurses often failed to recognize two major risk factors for malnutrition—recent weight loss and waning appetite.
While 59 patients had recently lost weight, only 19 percent of these cases had been recognized by the hospital staff. Of 57 patients with appetite loss, staff recognized 53 percent of cases.
Drinking water can be harmful to smallest babies
Babies younger than six months old should never be given water to drink, physicians at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore remind parents. Consuming too much water can put babies at risk of a potentially life-threatening condition known as water intoxication.
“Even when they’re very tiny, they have an intact thirst reflex or a drive to drink,” Dr. Jennifer Anders, a pediatric emergency physician at the center, told Reuters Health. “When they have that thirst and they want to drink, the fluid they need to drink more of is their breast milk or formula.”
Because babies’ kidneys aren’t yet mature, giving them too much water causes their bodies to release sodium along with excess water, Anders said. Losing sodium can affect brain activity, so early symptoms of water intoxication can include irritability, drowsiness and other mental changes. Other symptoms include low body temperature (generally 97 degrees or less), puffiness or swelling in the face, and seizures.
Tough job: Volunteers needed for chocolate study
Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.
The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes, the researchers said on Monday.
“We are looking at a high risk group first,” said Aedin Cassidy, a biochemist at the University of East Anglia, who will lead the study. “We hope there will be an additional benefit from dietary intervention in addition to the women’s drug therapy.”
Wine drinking may cut women’s dementia risk
Women who drink wine are less likely to develop dementia over time than their teetotaling peers, while drinking hard liquor may actually boost dementia risk, Swedish researchers report.
“There may be components in wine besides (alcohol) that protect against dementia,” Dr. Lauren Lissner of Goteborg University, the study’s senior author, told Reuters Health via e-mail. “Our findings are consistent with several previous reports.”
Lissner and her team looked at 1,462 women who ranged in age from 38 to 60 between 1968 and 1969 and were followed up to 2002, by which time 164 had been diagnosed with dementia. The women reported their alcohol consumption at the beginning of the study and three more times during the course of the study.
Many young adults take chances with food safety
Efforts to teach young adults about food safety may not be hitting home, a new study suggests.
Dr. Carol Byrd-Bredbenner of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues found that many college students engaged in eating behaviors that could make them sick, like eating raw homemade cookie dough or runny eggs.
While people are becoming increasingly aware of food safety issues, Byrd-Bredbenner and her team note, surveys still show a substantial proportion run the risk of food poisoning by eating raw eggs, undercooked hamburger and other foods that may harbor harmful bacteria.
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties, according to a dissertation defended at the University of Navarra
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties than natural roast, according to the dissertation defended by a biologist of the University of Navarra, Isabel López Galilea. She has emphasized in her study that the addition of sugar during the roasting process increases the development of compounds with high antioxidant activity.
The researcher of Department of Food Sciences, Physiology and Toxicology of the University of Navarra analyzed eleven varieties of commercial coffee for her study, which was entitled “The Influence of Torrefacto Roasting on the Principal Components of Coffee and its Antioxidant and Pro-oxidant Capacity.”
We are what we drink
University of Utah scientists developed a new crime-fighting tool by showing that human hair reveals the general location where a person drank water, helping police track past movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.
“You are what you eat and drink – and that is recorded in your hair,” says geochemist Thure (pronounced Tur-ee) Cerling, who led the research effort with ecologist Jim Ehleringer.
Their findings are being published online Feb. 25 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new hair analysis method also may prove useful to anthropologists, archaeologists and medical doctors in addition to police.
