Archive For The “Health” Category
Dietary Guidelines for Americans that include fruits and vegetables at the top of the list for a healthy diet have been released for 2015 to 2020.
Issued every five years, the guidelines not only provide the latest scientifically supported dietary advice, they often shape government policies on a range of food issues. The USDA department of Health & Human Services released the recommendations along with an updated MyPlate MyWins program.
The document recommends a diet based on a variety of nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits, grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy, lean meats and other protein foods and oils, while limiting saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars and sodium.
Americans are urged to eat a variety of vegetables, including dark green, red and orange, legumes and starchy vegetables. The recommended amount of vegetables in the Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern at the 2,000-calorie level is two-and-a-half cup-equivalents per day. For fruits, it’s two cup-equivalents per day, with at least half coming from whole fruits.
“The Dietary Guidelines provide science-based recommendations on food and nutrition so people can make decisions that may help keep their weight under control, and prevent chronic conditions, like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
by Jon Reidel, University of Vermont
One of the first studies to measure food consumption in schools before and after the implementation of a controversial mandate by the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms what school lunch officials initially feared and subsequently witnessed: students putting fruits and vegetables into the trash instead of their mouths.
The study, published online in Public Health Reports on Aug. 25, shows that although students selected more fruits and vegetables under the new mandate requiring them to take either a fruit or vegetable, they actually consumed slightly less of each. Through the use of digital imaging to capture students’ lunch trays before and after they exited the lunch line, researchers also found an increase in waste of approximately 56 percent.
“The basic question we wanted to explore was if under these 2012 USDA guidelines, does requiring a child to select a fruit or vegetable correspond with consumption,” says Sarah Amin, a researcher in Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study. “It was heartbreaking to see so many students toss fruits like apples into the trash right after exiting the lunch line.”
As a new year begins, it’s time to look at the trends that dietitians believe consumers will be following. So-called “clean” eating appears to be the biggest food trend for 2016.
“Clean” Eating
“Clean” eating r refers to a diet that is primarily made up of fresh fruit and vegetables. It avoids processed food, and is seen as being among 2016’s biggest food trends, according to Today’s Dietitian and Pollock Communications.
Seeds
Likewise, seeds should be a bigger part of consumers’ diets in 2016 with 55 percent of registered dietitians believing seeds have superfood nutrition, displacing kale as a trendy food source. Avocados are expected to be nearly as popular, along with ancient grains.
“Free” of…
Consumers will continue to express a strong preference for “free” of certain things, like genetically modified organisms (GMO), gluten, and antibiotics.
Spiralizing
Vgetable spiralizers are trending up while pasta sales decline (6 percent in the U.S., a whopping 25 percent in Italy).
“Ancient Foods”
The move toward ancient foods such as grains and superfoods can now become personalized with DNA testing. The foods are also easier to source because ethnic foods and seasonings are becoming very popular, especially those from Africa and the Middle East.
Alternet.com also published a list of 7 food trends to watch for 2016, featuring more plant eating, a rejection of GMOs, eating ugly foods and locavorism, which is the practice of eating locally produced foods.
by National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance
Hockessin, Del. – A new report card evaluates critical policies and programs impacting our food choices and their contributions to our nation’s health over the past 10 years.
Overall, the positive impact has been minimal despite proven scientific data continuously showing that a diet high in fruits and vegetables helps maintain a healthy weight and reduces the risk of several serious, chronic diseases that are the leading causes of death. In 2005, the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA) – led by the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – developed a National Action Plan, providing a new and comprehensive approach for improved public health through increased fruit and vegetable consumption.
10 years later, the Alliance has released a second Report Card to evaluate progress made by schools, restaurants, supermarkets, and federal and state governments in its 2015 National Action Plan (NAP). Similar to the first Report Card released in 2010, the 2015 NAP Report Card utilizing survey data finds that the average American’s fruit and vegetable consumption remains far below recommended levels, with a 5 percent decline during the past five years.
The decline is largely driven by a decrease in 100 percent juice consumption, especially at breakfast, and a decline in the dinner side dish for vegetables. There were differences in consumption by age, with positive increases in fruit consumption among all children and vegetable consumption among teens.
In contrast, consumers over age 45, who typically eat the most fruits and vegetables, are trending downward in their consumption of both over time. Overall, only 4percent of individuals achieve their recommended target for vegetables and only 8 percent achieve their recommended target for fruit in an average day.
The Report Card assigned an ‘A’ grade to schools, given the doubling of fruits and vegetables in school meals as a result of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. An ‘A’ grade was also offered to the Healthy Incentive Pilot program that demonstrated strong positive results at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among SNAP households, which helped justify the new USDA Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Program to test other methods of incentivizing SNAP participants to purchase fruits and vegetables.
An ‘A’ grade was also offered, once again, to the WIC Fruit and Vegetable Vouchers program, which was introduced in 2009 as part of a special supplemental program for Women, Infants and Children. Restaurants and cafeterias received a ‘B-‘ for providing greater availability and variety in fruit and vegetable choices on menus. Supermarkets and fruit and vegetable suppliers received a ‘C’ grade for some progress over the past five years at making fruits and vegetables more accessible and convenient.
A ‘D’ grade was given on the alignment of agricultural policy and research with nutrition policy. Last, a failing grade was once again assigned to the food marketing category given its continued low level of fruit and vegetable marketing (<1%) relative to all food marketing.
Capsaicin, the compound responsible for chilis’ heat, is used in creams sold to relieve pain, and recent research shows that in high doses, it kills prostate cancer cells. Now researchers are finding clues that help explain how the substance works. Their conclusions suggest that one day it could come in a new, therapeutic form. Their study appears in ACS’ The Journal of Physical Chemistry B.
About 10 years ago, researchers reported that capsaicin can kill prostate cancer cells in mice while leaving healthy cells unharmed. But translating that dose to humans would require them to eat a huge number of chili peppers per day.
Figuring out how capsaicin works could help researchers transform it into an effective drug in the form of an injection or pill. Researchers have figured out that the molecule binds to a cell’s surface and affects the membrane, which surrounds and protects the cell. That finding prompted Ashok Kumar Mishra and Jitendriya Swain to try to gain a deeper understanding of capsaicin’s effects so it might be harnessed in the future for new medicines.
The scientists were able to detect how the compound interacts with cell membranes by monitoring its natural fluorescence. The study showed that capsaicin lodges in the membranes near the surface. Add enough of it, and the capsaicin essentially causes the membranes to come apart. With additional research, this insight could help lead to novel tools against cancer or other conditions.
As we grow older, we lose strength and muscle mass. However, the cause of age-related muscle weakness and atrophy has remained a mystery.
Scientists at the University of Iowa have discovered the first example of a protein that causes muscle weakness and loss during aging. The protein, ATF4, is a transcription factor that alters gene expression in skeletal muscle, causing reduction of muscle protein synthesis, strength, and mass. The UI study also identifies two natural compounds, one found in apples and one found in green tomatoes, which reduce ATF4 activity in aged skeletal muscle. The findings were published online recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could lead to new therapies for age-related muscle weakness and atrophy.
“Many of us know from our own experiences that muscle weakness and atrophy are big problems as we become older,” says Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine in the UI Carver College of Medicine, and senior study author. “These problems have a major impact on our quality of life and health.”
Previously, Adams and his team had identified ursolic acid, which is found in apple peel, and tomatidine, which comes from green tomatoes, as small molecules that can prevent acute muscle wasting caused by starvation and inactivity. Those studies set the stage for testing whether ursolic acid and tomatidine might be effective in blocking the largest cause of muscle weakness and atrophy: aging.
In their latest study, Adams’ team found that ursolic acid and tomatidine dramatically reduce age-related muscle weakness and atrophy in mice. Elderly mice with age-related muscle weakness and atrophy were fed diets lacking or containing either 0.27 percent ursolic acid, or 0.05 percent tomatidine for two months. The scientists found that both compounds increased muscle mass by 10 percent, and more importantly, increased muscle quality, or strength, by 30 percent. The sizes of these effects suggest that the compounds largely restored muscle mass and strength to young adult levels.
Looking for patterns in food consumption among elementary school children, researchers at Texas A&M University found something interesting about when and why kids choose to eat their vegetables. After analyzing plate waste data from nearly 8,500 students, it appears there is at least one variable tending to affect whether kids eat their broccoli, spinach or green beans more than anything: what else is on the plate.
In short, kids, are much more likely to eat their vegetable portion when it’s paired with a food that isn’t so delicious it gets all the attention. When chicken nuggets and burgers, the most popular items among schoolchildren, are on the menu, for instance, vegetable waste tends to rise significantly. When other less-beloved foods, like deli sliders or baked potatoes, are served, the opposite seems to happen.
The problem has been blamed, at least in part, for the deteriorating diets of American youth. It has also been on clear display ever since the government updated, in 2013, its nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program. Children, suddenly confronted with vegetables on every plate (as required as part of the change), have responded not by eating them, but by leaving them on their plates — untouched.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nine out of 10 children still don’t eat enough vegetables.
Americans’ vegetable habits lean towards french fries and ketchup, and proof of that is in new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nearly 50 percent of vegetables and legumes available in the U.S. in 2013 were either tomatoes or potatoes. Lettuce came in third as the most available vegetable.
The USDA’s dietary guidelines recommend that adults consume 2.5 to 3 cups of vegetables a day, but the agency’s researchers found only 1.7 cups per person are available.
The federal dietary guidelines do not recommend relying primarily on potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce for most of our vegetable needs. They prescribe a varied mix that includes dark leafy greens, orange and yellow vegetables, and beans—along with those potatoes and tomatoes. The USDA wants us to eat them because they help reduce the risk for heart disease, stroke and some cancers as well as help keep a healthy weight.
So the vegetables that are available don’t really match what we’re supposed to be eating. What about what we are actually eating?
Some 87 percent of adults failed to meet the vegetable intake recommendations during 2007-2010. Recent survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a lot of variation state to state — with 5.5 percent of people in Mississippi getting enough vegetables to 13 percent in California meeting the recommendations.
Most people are likely to be eating tomatoes and potatoes, but as the USDA points out we often get them in the not-so-nutritious forms of french fries and pizza. About one-third of potatoes, and two-thirds of tomatoes, were bound for processing via items ranging from chips, to sweetened pizza sauce and ketchup.
Maybe Popeye had it right: Spinach makes you stronger. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found the high nitrate content in the leafy greens like spinach, as well as beets, improves muscle performance.
In a new study, published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, investigators found drinking concentrated vegetable juice – in this case made from beets – increased muscle power in nine patients with heart failure.
“It’s a small study, but we see robust changes in muscle power about two hours after patients drink the beet juice,” said Linda R. Peterson, M.D., associate professor of medicine. “A lot of the activities of daily living are power-based – getting out of a chair, lifting groceries, climbing stairs. And they have a major impact on quality of life.
Nitrates in beet juice, spinach, and other leafy green vegetables such as arugula and celery are processed by the body into nitric oxide, which is known to relax blood vessels and have other beneficial effects on metabolism.
The results of the study found that two hours after the treatment, patients demonstrated a 13 percent increase in power in muscles that extend the knee. The researchers also pointed out that participants experienced no major side effects from the beet juice, including no increase in heart rates or drops in blood pressure, which is important in patients with heart failure.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Compounds found in purple potatoes may help kill colon cancer stem cells and limit the spread of the cancer, according to a team of researchers.
Baked purple-fleshed potatoes suppressed the growth of colon cancer tumors in petri dishes and in mice by targeting the cancer’s stem cells. Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and responsible for more than 50,000 deaths annually, according to the American Cancer Society.
Attacking stem cells is an effective way to counter cancer, according to Jairam K.P. Vanamala, associate professor of food sciences, Penn State and faculty member at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute.
“You might want to compare cancer stem cells to roots of the weeds,” Vanamala said. “You may cut the weed, but as long as the roots are still there, the weeds will keep growing back and, likewise, if the cancer stem cells are still present, the cancer can still grow and spread.”