Torrefacto-roasted Coffee Has Higher Antioxidant Properties

Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties than natural roast, according to the dissertation defended by a biologist of the University of Navarra. She has emphasized in her study that the addition of sugar during the roasting process increases the development of compounds with high antioxidant activity.
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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.”

As this scientist of the School of Sciences emphasized, numerous studies have shown the benefits of this drink. In particular, it is considered to be one of the best sources for antioxidants in the diet; these substances help to protect us against free radicals, which are a cause of premature aging and certain diseases. Coffee has an antioxidant capacity which is ten times higher than other drinks, such as red wine and tea.

In order to carry out this research, Isabel López analyzed the coffee consumption habits of the inhabitants of Navarra, via 300 surveys. The results showed that Navarrans consume an average of 125 ml of coffee per day, with consumption slightly higher among women. In addition, they primarily consume ground coffee resulting from a mixture of natural roast and torrefacto-roast coffees, and the coffee is generally prepared with Italian or mocha coffee makers, followed by the filter, espresso and pump methods.

Artificial Butter Flavor In Popcorn May Cause Life-threatening Lung Diseases

A new study says that the chemical component of artificial butter flavoring can lead to serious lung diseases.

Scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, found that exposure to diacetyl can cause a serious condition that can lead to obliterative bronchiolitis or "popcorn lung."
Experiments showed that mice that inhaled diacetyl vapors for three months developed lymphocytic bronchiolitis—a potential precursor of obliterative bronchiolitis.

None of the mice, however, were diagnosed with the more-serious disorder.

Obliterative bronchiolitis is a life-threatening lung disease that has been detected in workers who inhale significant concentrations of the flavoring in microwave popcorn packaging plants.

"This is one of the first studies to evaluate the respiratory toxicity of diacetyl at levels relevant to human health. Mice were exposed to diacetyl at concentrations and durations comparable to what may be inhaled at some microwave popcorn packaging plants," said Daniel L. Morgan, Ph.D., head of the Respiratory Toxicology Group at the NIEHS and co-author in a release on the study.

Although exposure of laboratory animals by inhalation closely duplicates the way humans are exposed to airborne toxicants, the study points out that some anatomical differences between the mice and humans may account for why the nasal cavity of mice is more susceptible to reactive vapors than that of humans. Another reason may be that mice breathe exclusively through their noses.

Boosting the Flavour of Food may Help to Lose Weight

Boosting the Flavour of Food may Help to Lose Weight

Boosting the Flavour of Food may Help to Lose Weight
Boosting the flavour of your food with calorie-free seasonings and sweeteners may help in shedding those extra pounds, according to a new study.

According to Dr Alan Hirsch, founder and neurologic director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, flavouring food with calorie-free seasonings and sweeteners, may make people feel full faster and cut down their consumption.

The subjects in study lost an average of nearly 15 percent of their body weight.

Researchers focussed their study on "tastants," substances that can stimulate the sense of taste.

During the research, 2,436 overweight or obese individuals were to sprinkle a variety of savoury or sweet crystals on their food before eating their meals during the 6-month study period.

The subjects put liberal applications of the salt-free savoury flavors on salty foods and applied the sugar-free sweet crystals on sweet or neutral-tasting foods.

They did not know what the flavours were other than salty or sweet. The hidden flavours of the savoury tastants were cheddar cheese, onion, horseradish, ranch dressing, taco, or Parmesan. Sweet flavours were cocoa, spearmint, banana, strawberry, raspberry, and malt. A control group of 100 volunteers did not use tastants

Hirsch measured weight and body mass index (BMI), a measure of height and weight of the subjects before and after the study

The team found that the treatment group had an average weight of 208 pounds and average BMI of 34, which is considered obese.

Food Safety Body may Review Its Clearance of Baby Bottle Chemical

The EU food safety watchdog EFSA said Tuesday it may review its clearance of bisphenol A for use in the manufacture of plastic baby bottles after Canada moved to ban the substance.

"EFSA is aware of the studies on bisphenol published in the United States and Canada," spokeswoman Anne-Laure Gassin told AFP. "The agency will examine whether it should review its opinion on this product, which dates from January 2007."

The European Food Safety Authority, headquartered in Parma, northern Italy, will reach a decision soon, she said.

The Canadian government announced last month that it was seeking public comment on whether to ban baby bottles made using bisphenol, considered "potentially harmful."

It would become the first country to ban the chemical compound.

A US government report last month also found that bisphenol A could endanger reproductive health and the nervous system.

EFSA said in its January 2007 risk assessment that a daily intake of 0.05 milligrammes of bisphenol A per kilogramme of body weight was tolerable, and that this amount was much greater than that ingested by infants in an average day.

Source-AFP
SRM

Preservatives and Colorings Increases Hyper Activity in Kids

Eliminating artificial colours and preservatives from the diets of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) should be considered a first-line treatment to reduce hyperactivity, says an editorial in the British Medical Journal.

Professor Andrew Kemp from the Children's Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, says there is good scientific evidence that preservatives and colourings increased hyperactive behaviour.

However, removing them is still considered as an alternative rather than a standard treatment for ADHD, writes Professor Kemp.

In contrast, despite a lack of evidence for its effectiveness, the use of alternative medicine is widespread-up to 50 percent of children attending tertiary children's hospitals in the UK and Australia have used it in the past year.

Of the three main treatments for ADHD in children-drugs, behavioural therapy, and dietary modification-only drugs and dietary modification are supported by data from several trials. Yet, behavioural therapy, which has no scientific evidence base, is still thought of as necessary for "adequate treatment", Kemp says.

So why, despite evidence to the contrary, does the removal of food additives remain an alternative rather than a standard part of treatment for ADHD, asks Kemp.

Data published in 2007 showed that normal (not hyperactive) children were significantly more hyperactive after they ate a mixture of food colourings and a preservative (sodium benzoate), with obvious implications for children with ADHD.

In light of these findings, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reviewed the evidence linking preservatives and colourings with hyperactive behaviours from 22 studies between 1975 and 1994 and two additional meta-analyses.

High-risk Food Safety Violations in US Restaurants

 ‘Dirty Dining’, a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has ranked 20 U.S. cities for restaurant health. Austin, Texas, and Boston, Massachusetts rank worst, while Tucson, Arizona and San Francisco, California rank best.

Chicken salad stored at 50 degrees in Atlanta, insufficient hand-washing in Boston, mouse droppings in a Minneapolis ice machine, a live cockroach scampering across a Pittsburgh cutting board, are some of the dirty details disclosed in the CSPI’s inspection reports of 539 restaurants from 20 cities.

The report observes that improper hand washing, probably due to a lack of hot water at a sink, can spread Hepatitis A, Shigella, or norovirus to diners. Food not held at the proper temperature can encourage the growth of dangerous bacteria such as Clostridium perfringen or Staphylococus aureus. Salmonella or E. Coli O157:H7 can infect diners when meat or poultry is undercooked, or when raw food items are placed on unclean food surfaces.

Today CSPI, the nonprofit nutrition and food-safety watchdog group, is calling on state and local governments to exhort restaurants to display food safety letter grades in their front windows as done in Los Angeles, Los Vegas and St.Louis.

"Americans are eating outside the home and entrusting their health to restaurant workers more than ever before," said Sarah Klein, CSPI food-safety attorney and co-author of the report. "We want to work with state legislators, city councilors, and public health officials around the country to implement these consumer-friendly letter grades. They’d go a long way toward preventing unnecessary illnesses," she added.



Source-Medindia
THK/M

Debunks Health Benefits of Organic Food

Organically produced foods are not nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to researchers.

Consumers appear willing to pay higher prices for organic foods based on their perceived health and nutrition benefits, however, the new study from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found no evidence for superior nutritional content of organic food.

During the review, a total of 162 relevant studies were compared for nutrient content of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs.

For 10 out of the 13 nutrient categories analysed, there were no significant differences between production methods in nutrient content.

The differences that were detected were most likely to be due to differences in fertilizer use (nitrogen, phosphorus), and ripeness at harvest (acidity), and it is unlikely that consuming these nutrients at the levels reported in organic foods would provide any health benefit.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Research Unit, and one of the report's authors.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.

"Research in this area would benefit from greater scientific rigour and a better understanding of the various factors that determine the nutrient content of foodstuffs," Dangour added.

The study is published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source-ANI
SR

Best Antioxidant Spice is Clove, Say Boffins

Clove is the best antioxidant spice, according to Miguel Hernandez University (UMH) researchers.

Using spices eaten in the Mediterranean diet as natural antioxidants is a good way forward as far as health is concerned.

Boffins from the Miguel Hernandez University have identified cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) as the best antioxidant spice, due to the fact they contain high levels of phenolic compounds, as well as having other properties.

"Out of the five antioxidant properties tested, cloves had the highest capacity to give off hydrogen, reduced lipid peroxidation well, and was the best iron reducer", Juana Fernandez-Lspez, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the UMH, tells SINC.

As a result, the research study published in the latest issue of the Flavour and Fragrance Journal ranks this spice as the best natural antioxidant.

"The results show that use of the natural oxidants occurring in spices used in the Mediterranean diet, or their extracts, is a viable option for the food industry, as long as the organoleptic characteristics of the food product are not affected", adds the researcher.

"These substances exhibit high antioxidant capacity, and could have beneficial effects for health", says the researcher.

Salt Reduction Could Save Lives, Money

By reducing salt in processed foods could prevent strokes and heart attacks and also save billions of dollars in medical costs, a new study has found.

According to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, the U.S. food service industry should make a voluntary effort to reduce salt.

In the study, the researchers developed a computerized model that simulates the effects of reduced sodium intake on a large population of people between the ages of 40 and 85.

Based on a similar, salt-reduction campaign in the United Kingdom, the researchers estimated that a collaborative industry effort could lead to a 9.5 percent decline in Americans' salt intake.

That, in turn, would lead to a very modest decline in blood pressure among American consumers, minimizing a major risk factor for cardiovascular problems.

"In our analysis, we found these small decreases in blood pressure would be effective in reducing deaths due to cardiovascular disease," Crystal Smith-Spangler, MD, a postdoctoral scholar at the VA and first author of the study, said.

General Health News Beer Preservative may Cut Ammonia

The natural preservative, Hops, added to beer to ward off bacterial growth may also help in cutting the ammonia produced by cattle, say researchers.

Cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals depend on a slew of naturally occurring bacteria to aid digestion of grass and other fibrous plants in the first of their four stomach chambers, known as the rumen.
According to US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Michael Flythe, the problem comes from one group of bacteria, known as hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria (HABs).

While other bacteria help their bovine hosts convert plant fibres to cud, HABs break down amino acids, a chemical process that produces ammonia and robs the animals of the amino acids they need to build muscle tissue, explains Flythe.

To make up for lost amino acids, cattle growers have to add expensive and inefficient high-protein supplements to their animals' feed.

Flythe, who works at the ARS Forage Animal Production Research Unit (FAPRU) in Lexington, Ky, believes hops can reduce HAB populations.

Flythe put either dried hops flowers or hops extracts in either cultures of pure HAB or a bacterial mix collected from a live cow's rumen.

An independent report prepared by the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, part of the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina, says that Canada has one of the best food safety system in the industrialized world.

Canada was placed joint fourth with United States behind Denmark, Australia and the United Kingdom by the report.

he report took into consideration many factors including the rate of food-borne illness, inspections, education programs, use of agricultural chemicals and strategies on bioterrorism, risk management and food recalls.

Sylvain Charlebois, the lead author of this report said that Canada has revamped its system after an outbreak of listeriosis that caused 57 confirmed cases and 23 casualties in 2008.


Source-Medindia

US Congress Approves Food Safety Bill

After the impact of food-borne illness in US, the US Congress gave final authorization on Tuesday to food safety bill in the wake of mass recall affecting items like tainted eggs, peanut butter, pistachios, spinach and milk.

The House of Representatives passed the measure by a 215-144 margin, days after the Senate okayed the bill, sending the legislation to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

"With recent outbreaks of food-borne illness from common foods such as spinach, tomatoes, peanut butter, and cookie dough, the urgency of addressing this challenge could not be greater," said House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The bill strengthens the ability of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent outbreaks and fight them when they occur.

Preventable food-borne illness strikes some 76 million Americans each year, requiring 325,000 to be hospitalized, and 5,000 die from tainted food, according to Democratic senator Dick Durbin, the measure's lead author.

The legislation will give FDA more power for inspections, mandatory recall authority, and the technology to trace an outbreak back to its source, said Durbin, who warned, "Our vigilance must continue."

The vote came after a massive August recall of eggs after a salmonella outbreak that sickened some 1,700 people. Overall, more than half a billion eggs were recalled this year, the largest recall in the US industry's history.

Source-AFP

Study prevents diabetes with lifestyle changes

How do you prevent a deadly disease that is projected to afflict one third of all Americans born today and is caused largely by hard-to-change habits such as too much soda and snacks and too little physical activity?
You could combine the broccoli and cauliflower in the school cafeteria for more colorful eye appeal. Put out 30 basketballs in gym class instead of two. Teach the wonders of water for 15 weeks straight (and remove everything else from vending machines).
Those changes – along with hundreds of others, large and small – signficantly reduced several major risk factors for type 2 diabetes, researchers concluded last week after studying the most comprehensive attempt yet to attack the epidemic through the schools.
Lifestyle prescriptions – you should eat a balanced diet – are notoriously difficult to stick with. But these limits were impossible to avoid.
“Instead of selling candy for a fund-raiser, they were selling carnations. And those are the sort of things that made it holistic across the environment,” said Wayne Grasela, senior vice president for food services in the Philadelphia School District, where six middle schools took part in the three-year national program.
The plan was to intervene early, before diabetes develops – and at a young enough age to learn new habits that could prevent or reduce obesity, a major risk factor for the disease. Numerous physicians helped craft the program, but all the action took place in the schools.
“They are already there. They already take physical education and they already eat lunch in the school,” explained Barbara Linder, who oversaw the study for the National Institutes of Health.
So researchers set about changing the school.
In gym, for example, “instead of doing layups, with most kids standing in line, we had things set up so balls were being passed back and forth while they waited,” said Gary D. Foster, director of Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education, who chaired the national study.
Dumbbells, jump ropes, and medicine balls were distributed to groups, with rotations every 45 to 90 seconds to keep everyone moving. Pop music was played so that gyms were seen as “fun places to be with cool things to do,” Foster said.
In the cafeteria, the standard pizza was replaced with the same manufacturer’s whole-grain, lower-fat version. That shaved nearly 100 calories per slice and the kids didn’t notice, said Amy Virus, a registered dietician at Temple who coordinated the study’s nutrition component.
Nothing but water – not even 100 percent fruit juice – was stocked in vending machines. “Did they miss the juice? Sure, in the beginning,” Virus said, “but they got used to it. And they were buying the water.”
Supporting the effort were posters in classrooms (kids dancing, kids eating fruit), decals sent home over Christmas (TAKE THE FAMILY TV TURNOFF CHALLENGE!) and postcards in summer (“Be active for 60 minutes every day.”), even a healthy version of Jeopardy!, with 25 cards in English and Spanish.
An estimated 24 million Americans have diabetes, a chief cause of kidney failure, limb amputations, blindness, heart disease, and stroke. Although type 1 diabetes is caused by an auto-immune disorder, type 2 – more than 90 percent of the cases – is often linked to lifestyle factors that lead to weight gain and a gradual loss of the ability to control blood sugar.
Once rare before adulthood, type 2 diabetes has been rising steadily in children. Blacks and Hispanics are at particularly high risk; the government now projects that half of all babies born in those minority groups will develop diabetes later in life.
The new program was designed by researchers at seven major universities and targeted schools that enrolled high percentages of poor and minority students.
They began the interventions in 21 schools – three in each city – in the fall of 2006, when the students were in sixth grade; another 21 schools were designated as controls. A total of 4,603 students completed the study in June 2009, at the end of eighth grade.
Analysis showed that there were significantly greater reductions in several diabetes risk factors – body-mass index scores, average insulin levels, and the percentage of students with the largest waists – at the intervention schools vs. the controls.
All those differences were more pronounced among the 50 percent of students who were overweight or obese to begin with. Within that group, the interventions were associated with 21 percent lower odds of being obese at the end of eighth grade, the researchers reported.
The results were published last week online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Food Revolution: The Time is Now to change the world!

This article published in the New York Times sums it up perfectly: now is the time to have a food revolution. With current peanut butter scare,  knowledge that trans fat and soda consumption are bad for health, increasing obesity and biased subsidies it’s a perfect time for us to change the way we think about food and health.
AS tens of thousands of people recently strolled among booths of the nation’s largest organic and natural foods show here, munching on fair-trade chocolate and sipping organic wine, a few dozen pioneers of the industry sneaked off to an out-of-the-way conference room.
Although unit sales of organic foodhave leveled off and even declined lately, versus a year earlier, the mood among those crowded into the conference room was upbeat as they awaited a private screening of a documentary called “Food Inc.” — a withering critique of agribusiness and industrially produced food.
They also gathered to relish their changing political fortunes, courtesy of the Obama administration.
“This has never been just about business,” said Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm, the maker of organic yogurt. “We are here to change the world. We dreamt for decades of having this moment.”
After being largely ignored for years by Washington, advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply.
The most vocal booster so far has been the first lady, Michelle Obama, who has emphasized the need for fresh, unprocessed, locally grown food and, last week, started work on a White House vegetable garden. More surprising, perhaps, are the pronouncements out of the Department of Agriculture, an agency with long and close ties to agribusiness.
In mid-February, Tom Vilsack, the new secretary of agriculture, took a jackhammer to a patch of pavement outside his headquarters to create his own organic “people’s garden.” Two weeks later, the Obama administration named Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University and a longtime champion of sustainable agriculture and healthy food, as Mr. Vilsack’s top deputy.
Mr. Hirshberg and other sustainable-food activists are hoping that such actions are precursors to major changes in the way the federal government oversees the nation’s food supply and farms, changes that could significantly bolster demand for fresh, local and organic products. Already, they have offered plenty of ambitious ideas.
For instance, the celebrity chef Alice Waters recommends that the federal government triple its budget for school lunches to provide youngsters with healthier food. And the author Michael Pollan has called on President Obama to pursue a “reform of the entire food system” by focusing on a Pollan priority: diversified, regional food networks.
Still, some activists worry that their dreams of a less-processed American diet may soon collide with the realities of Washington and the financial gloom over much of the country. Even the Bush administration, reviled by many food activists, came to Washington intent on reforming farm subsidies, only to be slapped down by Congress.
Mr. Pollan, who contributes to The New York Times Magazine, likens sustainable-food activists to the environmental movement in the 1970s. Though encouraged by the Obama administration’s positions, he worries that food activists may lack political savvy.
“The movement is not ready for prime time,” he says. “It’s not like we have an infrastructure with legislation ready to go.”
Even so, many activists say they are packing their bags and heading to Washington. They are bringing along a copy of “Food Inc.,” which includes attacks on the corn lobby andMonsanto, and intend to provide a private screening for Mr. Vilsack and Ms. Merrigan.
“We are so used to being outside the door,” says Walter Robb, co-president and chief operating officer of Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain that played a crucial role in making organic and natural food more mainstream. “We are in the door now.”
AT the heart of the sustainable-food movement is a belief that America has become efficient at producing cheap, abundant food that profits corporations and agribusiness, but is unhealthy and bad for the environment.
The federal government is culpable, the activists say, because it pays farmers billions in subsidies each year for growing grains and soybeans. A result is an abundance of corn and soybeans that provide cheap feed for livestock and inexpensive food ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup.
They argue that farm policy — and federal dollars — should instead encourage farmers to grow more diverse crops, reward conservation practices and promote local food networks that rely less on fossil fuels for such things as fertilizer and transportation.
Last year, mandatory spending on farm subsidies was $7.5 billion, compared with $15 million for programs for organic and local foods, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
But advocates of conventional agriculture argue that organic farming simply can’t provide enough food because the yields tend to be lower than those for crops grown with chemical fertilizer.
“We think there’s a place for organic, but don’t think we can feed ourselves and the world with organic,” says Rick Tolman, chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association. “It’s not as productive, more labor-intensive and tends to be more expensive.”
The ideas are hardly new. The farmland philosopher and author Wendell Berry has been making many of the same points for decades. What is new is that the sustainable-food movement has gained both commercial heft, with the rapid success of organic and natural foods in the last decade, and celebrity cachet, with a growing cast of chefs, authors and even celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow who champion the cause.
It has also been aided by more awareness of the obesity epidemic, particularly among children, and by concerns about food safety amid seemingly continual outbreaks of tainted supplies.
While their arguments haven’t gained much traction in Washington, sustainable-food activists and entrepreneurs have convinced more Americans to watch what they eat.
They have encouraged the growth of farmers’ markets and created such a demand for organic, natural and local products that they are now sold at many major grocers, including Wal-Mart.
“Increasingly, companies are looking to reduce the amount of additives,” says Ted Smyth, who retired earlier this year as senior vice president at H. J. Heinz, the food giant. “Consumers are looking for more authentic foods. This trend absolutely has percolated through into mainstream foods.”
While the idea of sustainable food is creeping into the mainstream, the epicenter of the movement remains the liberal stronghold of Berkeley, Calif.

Get the white rice out of baby’s first foods

Almost every child care book offers the same advice about a baby’s first meal.
When infants are ready for solid food, experts say, start them first on rice cereal, available in a box, mixed with breast milk or formula. Babies have launched their eating careers this way for 60 years, says Alan Greene, a pediatrician at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children Hospital.
In the 1950s, Greene says, baby food companies trumpeted the benefits of white rice cereal, telling mothers that it was easier for babies to digest than anything they could make at home. “The ads said, ‘You can’t feed children as well as we can,’ ” says Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green.
But David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children’s Hospital Boston, says “there’s no scientific basis for this recommendation. That’s a myth.”
Concerned about increasing childhood obesity and growing rates of diabetes, some pediatricians want to change how babies eat.
Greene is encouraging parents to abandon white rice cereal in favor of more nutritious brown rice cereals or even a homemade brown rice mash or vegetable purée. “They won’t mind,” says Greene, who launched a “WhiteOut” campaign last week. “They’ll thank you for it.”
He is concerned that babies are getting hooked on the taste of highly processed white rice and flour, which could set them up for a lifetime of bad habits, such as a weakness for cakes and cookies.
White rice — after processing strips away fiber, vitamins and other nutrients — is a “nutritional disaster,” Ludwig says. It’s “as processed as anything in the food supply” and “the nutritional equivalent of table sugar.”
White rice and flour turn to sugar in the body “almost instantly,” Ludwig says, raising blood sugar and insulin levels “while providing virtually no other nutrients.”
The USA Rice Federation, which represents the rice industry, counters that white rice has no fat, cholesterol, sodium or gluten, a protein in wheat to which some people are allergic, says spokeswoman Stacy Fitzgerald-Redd. Even fussy babies can tolerate white rice without an upset stomach.
It’s “as nutritionally sound as any other carbohydrate,” she says.
Babies certainly eat a lot of it.
It’s “the No. 1 source of calories for kids in the first year of life, other than breast milk or formula,” says Greene, noting that, “by 18 months, most children get no whole grains each day.”
Greene says parents don’t have to abandon instant rice cereal, which offers the advantage of added iron, an important nutrient for babies, especially those who are breast-fed. Most cereal manufacturers already offer a brown rice alternative.
Though offering whole grains seems like a smart idea, nutrition expert Walter Willett says white rice is far from the only culprit in childhood obesity. Most kids also drink too many sugary beverages, such as fruit juice, punch and soda, says Willett, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the June diabetes study.
“I don’t want people to feel guilty,” Greene says. “I have four kids and I figured this out just recently. But it’s time to change.”

Health benefits of fish may outweigh mercury concerns

The benefits for heart health of eating fish may outweigh concerns over the potential negative impact of increased exposure to mercury as a result, according to a study.
But restrictions are still needed in connection with fish high in mercury, which include species such as perch, shark, swordfish and halibut, said a Swedish team whose results were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Maria Wennberg, a public health researcher at Umea University in Sweden, and her colleagues studied more than 900 Swedish men and women who answered questionnaires about the amount of fish in their diet. The team also analyzed the subjects’ red blood cells for levels of mercury and selenium.
Mercury levels were generally low for Scandinavians, but people whose red blood cells showed higher amounts of mercury did not have a higher risk of cardiac problems.
“The protective nutrients in fish override any harmful effect of mercury at these low levels of mercury,” Wennberg said.
The American Hearth Association recommends that people consume at least two servings of fish a week. Salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna are especially high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to minimise the risk of coronary heart disease.
But some questioned the findings, with David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, in Rensselaer, New York, saying that the researchers had assumed the mercury in the subjects’ blood had come from fish.
Carpenter, noting that there were other potential sources, such as coal-fired power plants and dental fillings, added that fish in the Baltic Sea, which borders Sweden, were high in levels of other toxic compounds such as PCBs, which complicated the results.
Wennberg and her colleagues said as well that the drawbacks of relying on the subjects’ memories about the amount of fish consumption could also have an impact on the results.

Chamomile helps relax and get rid of indigestion

Chamomile is characterized by wonderful characteristics to calm the stomach, as well as a wide range of uses that have been proven through many generations, and also helps to relax and get rid of the indigestion and the problems of pre-menstrual cycle and relieves the person from nausea and inflammation of the intestine.  
Studies have shown that chamomile contains substances anti-spasms and inflammation, as utilized in the treatment of bowel, stomach, menstrual cramps, chamomile is a panacea for the headaches and stress-General and drink normally, rather than tea.
It is advisable to avoid eating animal in the case of allergies, and about Rod and chrysanthemums flower Alrajavid and also when dealing with the person to warfarin (colliquative of blood), according to the sites mentioned in the specialized health news.
The Chamomile is a herbal plant around with the smell of aromatic Zakia, and grow in environments with fertile soils, such as kindergartens and some water from the slopes of the mountains, in fields and on the outskirts of the valleys.

40% of deaths in the world because of the misuse of antibiotics

Health experts concluded that more than 40% of deaths worldwide are caused by misuse of antibiotics, and the spread of this phenomenon extensively in China, where most people are baptized into the use of antibiotics without prescription.

 Which has led health experts to re-warning of the danger of failure in the use of drugs by pointing out that more than a million children in China were deaf as a result of the use of antibiotics the wrong way.
It should be noted that die in China each year 200 thousand people have been failures in the use of drugs, because most people hoard antibiotics in their homes and eat normally without medical advice.
And physicians prescribe antibiotics for 70% of patients in hospitals, at a time is 80% of these prescriptions are unnecessary, according to the Chinese Medical Association.
And increases the rate of per capita consumption of antibiotics in China ten times the average annual per capita consumption in the United States.
And much higher rates of injection of antibiotics in the veins of children who come to the hospital to consult a doctor. The reason is due to the preoccupation of physicians who prefer to speed up the healing process without having to explain ways to use the medicine for the people.

Eating too much red meat displays the risk of stroke

A recent study demonstrated that women who eat lots of red meat have a higher risk of stroke.
I went study 30000 Lady Swedish that women who eat at least 102 grams of meat every day have a higher risk of stroke by 42% for women who drank less than 25 grams of meat due to the impact of meat on the flow of blood in the the brain.
Nutrition experts have proved negative impact of red meat a lot of diseases, including increased risk of certain types of cancer, heart disease and increase blood pressure. However, this study focused on the impact of meat in abundance on the risk of stroke.
Has d. Susanna Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm with the research team to follow up the case of 34 670 women aged between 39-73 years old, and they all are not suffering from vascular disease or cancer when the study began in 1997. During the ten years of follow-up in 1680 a woman was hit by strokes.
He spoke of stroke due to a blocked artery, which supplies the brain with blood, known as cerebral infarction, the most common types of stroke, which represents 78% of strokes that dealt with the study. While other species occur as a result of bleeding in the brain or for unspecified reasons.
However, the study found no link between eating red meat or processed and the risk of other types of strokes.
The scholars explain that the relationship between eating meat and the incidence of this type of stroke attachment to eating meat increase blood pressure, the main cause of stroke. The iron is red meat may also lead to increased production of free radicals groups that infect the tissue. The study also showed that processed meats are rich in sodium, which may increase blood pressure.

nausea heartburn indigestion

There are lots of different similar conditions that a person can deal with, but if you are suffering from nausea heartburn indigestion, it is the real deal and you are probably in a great deal of pain and want to find appropriate treatment so that you can get back to your normal life and not have to deal with this excruciating pain all the time.
One of the worst things about nausea heartburn indigestion or heartburn acid indigestion is that it happens most commonly after eating a meal, so it means that heartburn sufferers often stop enjoying their meals and even often avoid eating altogether.
When you are living with nausea heartburn indigestion you really just need to know how to deal, and fortunately there are quite a few different options that you have in terms of treatment here.
Choosing the Best Treatment
The best way to choose the right treatment for your nausea heartburn indigestion is to learn about the different treatments that are available to you and then once you have become more educated, you will be much better off when trying to determine which is going to be most appropriate for you.
One treatment that you may want to consider is quite simple, and that is to make some simple lifestyle changes. This includes eating smaller, more frequent meals for one, because by stuffing yourself you are just going to be causing yourself more pain and increasing the likelihood of your heartburn coming back.
You are also going to want to try keeping yourself sitting up a bit when you go to bed at night, as this will prevent the acids in your stomach from regurgitating back up into the esophagus.
Another great nausea heartburn indigestion treatment is medication, although this is an option that many people do not want to have to resort to. You can try antacids first which are very mild, but if these are not enough there are better, stronger medications that are available as well. There are the histamine H2 antagonists for one, and this is a class of medications that inhibit the action of histamine which is a chemical that stimulates stomach cells to produce acid.
It is important that you work together with your doctor on this if you want to come out of it all with the best possible results. They will be able to stay on top of your condition and make sure that you are making the proper progress.
Tags: nausea heartburn indigestion, heartburn acid indigestion, antacids, indigestion

Filed under indigestion by health-guide