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Food

Nutrition

NEWS:

Chinese restaurant food unhealthy, study says "The average adult needs around 2,000 calories a day and 2,300 milligrams of salt, which is about one teaspoon of salt, according to government guidelines. In some ways, Liebman said, Italian and Mexican restaurants are worse for your health, because their food is higher in saturated fat, which can increase the risk of heart disease. While Chinese restaurant food is bad for your waistline and blood pressure — sodium contributes to hypertension — it does offer vegetable-rich dishes and the kind of fat that’s not bad for the heart."

Culinary Shocker: Cooking Can Preserve, Boost Nutrient Content Of Vegetables “In the new study, the researchers evaluated the effects of three commonly-used Italian cooking practices — boiling, steaming, and frying — on the nutritional content of carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Boiling and steaming maintained the antioxidant compounds of the vegetables, whereas frying caused a significantly higher loss of antioxidants in comparison to the water-based cooking methods, they say. For broccoli, steaming actually increased its content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds touted for their cancer-fighting abilities. The findings suggest that it may be possible to select a cooking method for each vegetable that can best preserve or improve its nutritional quality, the researchers say.”

Does drinking your fruit and veggies count? "However, studies show that most fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants in the skins and peels, which do not make it into juice. For example, one study reports that a whole orange contains up to five times more of one major antioxidant than a glass of orange juice. The antioxidant is found in the white pulp and membranes that separate the orange segments from each other."

Eating Your Veggies May Provide Additional Health Benefits

Fortified foods: Too much of a good thing? "For instance, exceeding the tolerable upper intake level for vitamin C, 2,000 miligrams a day for adults, can cause diarrhea, an upset stomach and kidney stones. Likewise, while plant sterols and stanols added to your granola bar may help lower your cholesterol, you need only two grams of the substances a day. Exceeding that amount won't give you any extra benefit and the long-term effects of getting too much are unknown, according to medical research in the Harvard Heart Letter."

Fruit proves better than vitamin C alone "If you're in the market for an antioxidant to keep your body young and healthy, new research suggests you'd be much better off with oranges than vitamin C tablets. Although vitamin C is best known for its protection against scurvy and, possibly, the common cold (see 'Vitamin C best in the cold'), fruits rich in vitamin C are also powerful antioxidants that protect cellular DNA from being damaged by oxidation. Going without such foods leads to DNA damage long before the iconic bleeding gums of scurvy are seen."

How bad is fructose? "(1). Why is fructose of concern? First, it is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose. In fruit, it serves as a marker for foods that are nutritionally rich. However, in soft drinks and other "sweets," fructose serves to reward sweet taste that provides "calories," often without much else in the way of nutrition. Second, the intake of soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or sucrose has risen in parallel with the epidemic of obesity, which suggests a relation (2). Third, the article in this issue of the Journal (1) and another article published elsewhere last year (3) implicate dietary fructose as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease. … Most fructose in the American diet comes not from fresh fruit, but from HFCS or sucrose (sugar) that is found in soft drinks and sweets, which typically have few other nutrients (2) … Fructose differs in several ways from glucose, the other half of the sucrose (sugar) molecule (4). Fructose is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract by a different mechanism than that for glucose. Glucose stimulates insulin release from the isolated pancreas, but fructose does not."

How Heating Affects Extra Virgin Olive Oil Quality Indexes and Chemical Composition. (J Agric Food Chem. 2007)

Industrial "Food" a Growing Menace

Olive Oil: Which Type Is Best?

On Nutritious Drink Studies, Consider the Funding Source "Before you take to heart any research about the health effects of beverages such as milk, fruit juice or soft drinks, find out who paid for the study. If a beverage manufacturer or industry group funded the research, the finding may be biased, researchers report. … The same association has been found in studies of medications funded by drug companies, Ludwig said. But, he added, bias in studies of beverages could have a greater impact because nearly everyone drinks milk, juices or soft drinks."

Organic Food is Safer and Healthier, Researchers Say "A EU-funded investigation into the difference between organic and ordinary farming has shown that organic foods have far more nutritional value. Up to 40 per cent more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of heart disease and cancer, could be found in organic fruit and vegetables than in those conventionally farmed."

Rating the Cooking Fats

Research Says Boiling Broccoli Ruins Its Anti Cancer Properties "Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that the standard British cooking habit of boiling vegetables severely damages the anticancer properties of many Brassica vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and green cabbage. Past studies have shown that consumption of Brassica vegetables decreases the risk of cancer. This is because of the high concentration in Brassicas of substances known as glucosinolates which are metabolized to cancer preventive substances known as isothiocyanates. However before this research it was not known how the glucosinolates and isothiocyanates were influenced by storage and cooking of Brassica vegetables."

Reseachers: Rice Eaters Are Healthy Eaters "People who eat rice have more nutritious diets that are higher in 12 essential vitamins and minerals, including folic acid, potassium and vitamin C and lower in saturated fat and added sugar, than the diets of non-rice eaters, according to a new study presented at the American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo 2007 (FNCE) taking place in Philadelphia this week. The study also shows that rice eaters have a lower risk of high blood pressure and of being overweight, and may have a reduced risk of heart disease, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome."

Try Adding These Superfoods To Your Thanksgiving Dinner This Year "Kiwis are full of antioxidants, vitamin E and lutein. They ward off vision problems, blood clots, and even lower cholesterol—almost as effectively as the second new superfood on the list—barley. … Next on the list is a traditional Thanksgiving favorite—cranberries. “The crimson color of cranberries signal that they are full of flavonoids,” explains Dean. "

Where's The Fruit?

ARTICLES:

Avoiding Trans Fats in Restaurants

Back To The Stone Age "Our brain craves the diet that helped form it in the first place. In the Stone Age humans foraged for wild plants, fruits, berries, roots, legumes, nuts and hunted for wild game and seafood. Humans didn't eat the refined grains that define today's colorless typical American diet. And, certainly, they didn't have cars to zip them to McDonald's drive-through windows so they could "supersize." The American diet is foreign to the brain. The mechanics of our brain are fine-tuned to a long-lost diet that existed in prehistoric days."

dietary fat

Does Industry Sponsorship Undermine the Integrity of Nutrition Research? " … papers sponsored by industry were more likely to report favorable outcomes for that industry's beverages than papers with other sources of funding."

Fiber is Fabulous "Most people are surprised to learn that animal products contain absolutely no fiber at all. Since meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy selections make up more than 30 percent of the calories in the typical Western diet-and much of the rest comes from sugars and other refined foods-the result is that most Westerners are getting less than one third of the fiber they need. The good news is that fiber is abundant in all unrefined plant foods. Enjoying a variety of fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and legumes (beans, lentils, and peas) assures a plentiful supply of the many varieties of fiber the body needs."

That Old Flax Magic—Real or Imaginary? "Bottom line: Flaxseeds and their oil contain beneficial chemicals, but they are not the only sources of ALA or lignans. Walnuts, canola oil, and soybean oil contain ALA. … • Children and pregnant or lactating women should not eat lots of flax because of its potential hormonal effects."

The 10 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Almonds and postprandial glycemia—a dose-response study (Metabolism 2007)

Carbohydrates: is the advice to eat less justified for diabetes and cardiovascular health? (Curr Opin Lipidol. 2007) "SUMMARY: Diets involving moderate carbohydrate restriction are suitable alternatives to high-carbohydrate, high-fibre diets for weight loss and reduction of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk, as well as to treat individuals with the conditions. As such diets are generally high in protein and unsaturated fatty acids, they are not recommended for those with established or incipient nephropathy. High-carbohydrate, high-fibre diets remain appropriate for use in all those situations, provided carbohydrate is derived principally from minimally processed wholegrain breads and cereals and intact vegetables and fruit. Lower carbohydrate options may be preferable for markedly insulin-resistant individuals."

Relationship between Funding Source and Conclusion among Nutrition-Related Scientific Articles (PLOS Med 2007) " Industry funding of nutrition-related scientific articles may bias conclusions in favor of sponsors' products, with potentially significant implications for public health."

Ten-Year Comparison of the Influence of Organic and Conventional Crop Management Practices on the Content of Flavonoids in Tomatoes. (J Agric Food Chem. 2007) "The levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments, whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional treatments."

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