Calcium in the news

It's common knowledge that:

Calcium is an important component of a healthy diet. Calcium is essential for the normal growth and maintenance of bones and teeth, and calcium requirements must be met throughout life. Long-term calcium deficiency can lead to osteoporosis, in which the bone deteriorates and there is an increased risk of fractures. While a lifelong deficit can affect bone and tooth formation, over-retention can cause hypercalcemia (elevated levels of calcium in the blood), impaired kidney function and decreased absorption of other minerals.[5] -Wikipedia

Scientists at Texas A&M AgriLife's Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center have genetically modified a carrot which helps people absorb more calcium. From Science Daily:

"If you eat a serving of the modified carrot, you'd absorb 41 percent more calcium than from a regular carrot," said Dr. Jay Morris, lead author on the paper, a post doctorate researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

However, on the flip side, too much calcium can cause these problems:

Hypercalcemia per se can result in fatigue, depression, confusion, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, constipation, pancreatitis or increased urination "Bones, stones, groans, and psychic moans" is a saying which will help you remember the signs and symptoms of hypercalcemia; if it is chronic it can result in urinary calculi (renal stones or bladder stones). Abnormal heart rhythms can result, and EKG findings of a short QT interval and a widened T wave suggest hypercalcemia. - Wikipedia

Researchers in New Zealand have now determined that calcium supplements are also associated with other health risks. From Reuters:

Calcium supplements may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in healthy postmenopausal women, a study in New Zealand has found.

The women recruited had a mean age of 74 and had been postmenopausal for more than five years. Those who were receiving treatment for osteoporosis, already taking calcium supplements, or suffering any major ongoing disease were excluded.

Of the 1,471 participants, 732 were given calcium supplements and 739 given placebos. They were followed up every six months for five years. Researchers also checked hospital admissions and reviewed all death certificates for study participants to identify any unreported events.

Heart attacks were more common in the calcium group, with 31 women in that group suffering a total of 36 such events, while 21 women on placebo suffered 22 such events. More strokes were also seen in the calcium group, with 34 women suffering 37 such events, while 25 women on placebo suffered 26 such events.

Back to moderation...

Caffeinated potato chips

I wonder how this would go with a Red Bull, Jolt gum, or maybe even Penguin mints? There are so many caffeine added products out there today, that adding it to the definitive 'junk food' should be no surprise. Even better than olestra chips!

Apparently, http://www.nrgsnax.com/ has created a potato chip with numerous additives, such as caffeine, taurine, and b vitamins. You can buy them by the case here.

A good breakfast can help control your blood sugar all day!

From Science Daily:

"It is known that a carbohydrate-rich breakfast with low GI [glycemic index] can moderate increases in blood sugar after lunch. But my results show that low GI in combination with the right amount of so-called indigestible carbohydrates, that is, dietary fiber and resistant starch, can keep the blood-sugar level low for up to ten hours, which means until after dinner," says Anne Nilsson, a doctoral student at the Unit for Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry and author of the dissertation.
Experiments also showed that the blood sugar increase following breakfast can be moderated in a similar way by eating the right grain products the night before.

Additionally, eating the 'right' grains can help decrease metabolic syndrome. This researcher also studied mental acuity and blood sugar levels after meals.

It turned out that subjects who had eaten low GI breakfasts could concentrate better and had a better working memory (a type of short-term memory) than the other group. These experiments also showed that healthy individuals with low glucose tolerance, that is with high rises in blood sugar than average following a meal, generally performed less well. "The findings indicate that people with great fluctuations in their levels of blood sugar run a greater risk of having a generally lower cognitive ability," says Anne Nilsson.

Apparently, the indigestible carbohydrates are the key to feeding the bacteria in the large intestine. This in turn ferments the carbohydrates into usable compenents like short chain fatty acids:

Anne Nilsson's studies show that components produced in the process of fermentation can enter the blood and favorably affect the regulation of blood sugar and the feeling of satiety, and they can help alleviate inflammatory conditions in the body, which in turn can entail a reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Diet in the News

A few articles about diet in the news.

Kids raised on diet food may be more susceptible to obesity later in life.
From Science Daily:
A team of researchers contends that animals learn to connect the taste of food with the amount of caloric energy it provides, and children who consume low-calorie versions of foods that are normally high in calories may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content, leading them to overeat as they grow up.

*****

Choose milk for losing fat and gaining muscle.
From Science Daily:
Upon the study's conclusion, researchers found that the milk drinking group had lost nearly twice as much fat - two pounds - while the carbohydrate beverage group lost one pound of fat. Those drinking soy lost no fat. At the same time, the gain in muscle was much greater among the milk drinkers than either the soy or carbohydrate beverage study participants.

They studied young, healthy men who were put on a regimen of weight lifting x 5 days a week, then assigned to drink either two cups of skim milk, a soy beverage with equivalent amounts of protein and energy, or a carbohydrate beverage with an equivalent amount of energy, which was roughly the same as drinking 600 to 700 milliliters of a typical sports drink.

*****

Picky eating is genetic?
From WebMD:
A study of 10,780 British twins shows food fear to be 78% inherited. Another 22% of food fear comes from environmental factors that affect one twin but not the other, report Lucy J. Cooke, MSc, of University College London and colleagues.

Automatic waffle maker, 2.0

For anyone who remembers my previous post about the automatic waffle maker, here's their new and improved 2.0 version, complete with informative text along the way.
Their new version is cleaner and smoother all around.

Volume expanding diet pill fills you up so you eat less

Pic: Jelly belly, from about the size of a spit wad the compound grows to a tennis ball so dieters sit down feeling full. Image: Courtesy of Prof. Luigi Ambrosio

From wired:

MILAN -- Italian scientists are testing a new diet pill that turns into a clear, gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball that may help shrink waistlines by giving dieters a sense of satiety.

This is currently in clinical trials in Rome. If all goes well, they hope to have it available to the public in about a year.

When swallowed, it is in powder form, but when you add water (you are supposed to drink 2 glasses of water with this), this cellulose hydrogel can soak up to 1,000 times its weight.

I wonder if this could dehydrate people, especially since most people don't actually take their pills as prescribed. Without the 2 glasses of water, that liquid will come from somewhere, and I'll be interested in seeing if this creates any electrolyte imbalances.

Of course, the safer way to diet would be to focus on foods with lower caloric density.

From physorg:

Eating smart, not eating less, may be the key to losing weight. A year-long clinical trial by Penn State researchers shows that diets focusing on foods that are low in calorie density can promote healthy weight loss while helping people to control hunger.
Foods that are high in water and low in fat – such as fruits, vegetables, soup, lean meat, and low-fat dairy products – are low in calorie density and provide few calories per bite. “Eating a diet that is low in calorie density allows people to eat satisfying portions of food, and this may decrease feelings of hunger and deprivation while reducing calories” said Dr. Julia A. Ello-Martin, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral dissertation in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State.

May not be as cool and high tech, but definitely sounds cheaper and safer.

Soft drinks are unhealthy, especially for your mitochondrial DNA

Apparently, the culprit is sodium benzoate, a preservative which is used to prevent mold in soft drinks, and found in Coca Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and others.

All about sodium benzoate, from The Independent:

"Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.
Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.
He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.
"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.""

It's also suspected of worsening ADHD in kids.

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2586652.ece

School lunch vending machines: tracking so much more

From cnet:

"Instead of standing in one of eight long lunch lines during a 30-minute break, students at Sebastian River can walk up to one of the refrigerated vending machines, punch in a PIN code and student ID number, and buy milk, a bag of sliced carrots and a turkey sandwich, among other options. The machine prompts students to make choices that complete a balanced diet under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which officially approved the machines for use in schools on January 22. The school also calls the machines "healthy" because they don't sell carbonated soft drinks or fried and sugary snacks. "

The machine keeps track of prepaid accounts for students, and keeps track of disbursements to low income kids and the 'free lunch program' so that schools can be later reimbursed by the government.

Parents can log in online to MealPayPlus to see what and when their child ate during the day, and to add money to the account.

The machine also has a camera so they can take pics of who is actually purchasing the meal to prevent bullies from stealing PINs and IDs.

So much for the lunch lady.

http://news.com.com/Machines+give+kids+lessons+in+food,+finance/2009-1041_3-6185887.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

Foster's beer cell battery

Australia's University of Queensland, along with Foster's beer's Yatala brewery, have joined to test out a microbial fuel cell to generate electicity.

"The fuel cell is essentially a battery in which bacteria consume water-soluble brewing waste such as sugar, starch and alcohol.

The battery produces electricity plus clean water, said Prof. Jurg Keller, the university's wastewater expert.

The complex technology harnesses the chemical energy that the bacteria releases from the organic material, converting it into electrical energy.

"It's not going to make an enormous amount of power - its primarily a waste water treatment that has the added benefit of creating electricity," Keller said. "

The predict the 660 gallon fuel cell will produce 2 kilowatts of power. Definitely a guilt lowering idea, but I wonder how much it actually costs in terms of resources?

http://www.physorg.com/news97341527.html

Soup as a diet aid?

Apparently, having a low calorie bowl of soup at the beginning of your meal, before your main course, is being purported to help you lose weight.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University "found those who had broth before their main reduced the total calorie intake of their meal by a fifth, compared with those who just had the main meal. "

Soup details: "low-calorie, broth-based soups that are about 100 to 150 calories per serving."

Seems like a silly study, since this makes such intuitive sense. Soup fills you up volume wise, without much caloric density.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=452198&in_page_id=1798

Foods on this week's "Good for You" list

Perusing articles from the past weekend, there seem to be a large number of food/nutrition related claims.

Green Tea Compound, EGCG, May Be A Therapy For People With Rheumatoid Arthritis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070429113444.htm

A study where rats fed powdered tart cherries had "lower total cholesterol, lower blood sugar, less fat storage in the liver, lower oxidative stress and increased production of a molecule that helps the body handle fat and sugar" than control rats:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430074703.htm

Fish Oil May Help Kidney Disease Sufferers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430094018.htm

Macadamia Nuts Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risks. "The Healthy Heart diet with macadamia nuts did reduce total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared with the standard American diet. "
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430125512.htm

Pistachios Lower Cholesterol, Provide Antioxidants comparable to fruits and green leafy vegetables
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430125516.htm

Moderate coffee (3-5 cups a day), decreases risks of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, kidney stones, gallstones, depression and even suicide.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430125523.htm

TV Food Ads Increase Obese Children's Appetite By 134%

"Science Daily — Obese and overweight children increase their food intake by more than 100% after watching food advertisements on television; a study by the University of Liverpool psychologists has shown.

A group of 60 children of varying weights, aged between nine and eleven years was shown a series of both food television adverts and toy adverts, followed by a cartoon. Food intake following the food adverts was significantly higher compared with the toy adverts in all weight groups, with the obese children increasing their consumption by 134%; overweight children by 101% and normal weight children by 84%."

Also of note, the fattest kids chose the highest fat foods, whereas the merely obese group chose slightly less fattening fare. I wonder what would happen if you laced their snacks with leptin?

Yet another reason to either a) avoid TV altogether, or b) get a personal video recorder (PVR) . Makes me grateful yet again for my replaytv. And now we have even greater data to support that commericals really can be detrimental to your health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070424130951.htm

Fast-food nutrition baffles consumers

The quiz is frightening. I got 2 right, out of sheer luck.

Here's the scoop: "The poll asked 523 registered voters to answer four seemingly simple questions: Pick out the dishes with the most calories, the fewest calories, the least salt and the most fat from among menu items from Denny's, Chili's, Romano's Macaroni Grill and McDonald's...By any measure, the respondents flunked. Two-thirds answered all four questions wrong. And no one -- not one single person -- got all four right."

Why: Public health advocates want a bill that requires chain restaurants to publish nutritional data on menus, so that we can make more informed choices.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/18/MNGOUPAJ7V1.DTL&feed=rss.news

Here's the quiz from the article:

Fast food nutrition quiz
A new poll by Field Research Corp. asked Californians to identify the low-calorie, low-salt, high-fat and high-calorie menu items from a list of four choices. Of the people surveyed, 68 percent failed every question, and no more than 11.2 percent got any one question correct.
Number in parentheses that follows each possible answer is the percentage of survey respondents who selected that food item:

1. Which of the following breakfast items that are served at Denny's do you think has the fewest calories?
A. Ham and cheddar omelet (36.2)
B. Country fried steak and eggs (11)
C. Three slices of French toast with syrup and margarine (14.7)
D. Three pancakes with syrup and margarine (28.5)

2. Which of the following items that are served at Chili's do you think has the least salt?
A. Cajun chicken sandwich (6.6)
B. Classic combo steak and chicken fajitas (7.6)
C. Guiltless chicken platter (24.9)
D. Smoked turkey sandwich (51.5)

3. Which of the following items that are served at Romano's Macaroni Grill do you think has the most fat?
A. Traditional lasagna (35)
B. Chicken Caesar salad (10.1)
C. Pasta classico with sausage and peppers (21.8)
D. Barbecue chicken pizza (26.2)

4. Which of the following items that are served at McDonald's do you think has the most calories?
A. Two Big Macs (53)
B. Two Egg McMuffins (8.4)
C. One large chocolate shake (11.2)
D. Four regular hamburgers (22.1)

Answers: 1 (B) Country fried steak and eggs (464 calories); 2 (A) Cajun chicken sandwich (2,220 mg. sodium); 3 (B) Chicken Caesar salad (69 grams fat); 4 (C) One large chocolate shake (1,160 calories)

Note: Results of telephone interviews completed March 20-31 among 523 registered voters in California, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Numbers do not add up to 100 because "don't know" responses are not shown.
Source: California Center for Public Health Advocacy

Want to eat less? Don't bus your table

"Science Daily — People watching the Super Bowl who saw how much they had already eaten -- in this case, leftover chicken-wing bones -- ate 27 percent less than people who had no such environmental cues, finds a new Cornell study."

Just think of all the money buffets would save if they bussed their tables more slowly. It also makes a very simple diet aid. Unfortunately, it was more effective for men than women.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409181631.htm

Home dipstick test for spoiled food

It may be 2 or 3 years till this hits the shelves. Strange that nobody has done this yet.
It takes 5 minutes to get results, and it is 90% accurate. Since it's a dipstick test, you can carry these things anywhere, including restaurants.

How it works: "The new test relies on the detection of a class of chemicals called nonvolatile biogenic amines. These compounds are generated during the bacterial decay of food proteins and are an indirect measurement of the extent of food spoilage. Lavigne and his associates developed special polymers that change color in the presence of these biogenic amines."

You've even got gradations of spoilage: "the polymers changed from dark purple to yellow in the presence of badly spoiled fish, while the change was from dark purple to a reddish hue in the presence of mildly spoiled fish".

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326095846.htm

Kids average 50 hours a year of junk food ads

Newsweek article about a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"...researchers looked at 1,638 hours of programming and analyzed nearly 9,000 food and beverage ads. They found that none of the food advertisements targeted to kids were for fruits or vegetables, and more than half the ads they saw were for candy, snacks or fast food...In compiling the report, Kaiser researchers looked at a week's worth of content from 6 a.m. to midnight between May and September of 2005. They collected data from the parents of more than 4,000 children to determine how much time kids watched TV and how much time they spent watching children's shows (where the amount of ads are limited by law, but where more ads, 50 percent of all ad time, are for food) as well as non-children's programming. "

And, it gets better.
"Thirty-four percent of the ads were for candy and snacks, 25 percent were for cereal and 10 percent were for fast foods."

It's just depressing.

Makes me relieved that I've trained my 5 year old to watch via replaytv, and to skip commercials. When she was younger, there were occasions when we watched live tv and she would pick up the remote control to fast forward when a commercial came on and disappointingly said, 'It's not working'. Wish I got that on video.

I know that ideally we're not supposed to let kids watch tv in the first place. But realistically, I'm hoping more kids will be increasingly accustomed to PVRs, and won't have to sit thru the obesity generators in the future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17838488/site/newsweek/

But wait, there's more! :-)

I don't really care for Tivo, since I am a replaytv fan myself, but in the interest of more PVRs in the world, I saw this deal go by today:

http://www.dealhack.com/archives/2007/04/free_80hour_series2_tivo_wtih.html

Batteries powered by sugar for your hand held devices

Not a new idea, but it sounds like it is becoming closer to a viable reality.

"Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future. Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source -- from soft drinks to tree sap -- and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say. "

This new battery is biodegradable, and employs an enzyme that breaks down the sugar into energy and water. Just think: a new diet craze where instead of letting those empty calories go to your hips, you can power your ipod or cell phone with it!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070325111602.htm

Soak your meat in tea to decrease bacteria?

What will they think of next? Scientists found the most effective antimicrobial tea mixture consisted of jasmine tea, green tea, and honey.

"Treating turkey breast slice with combinations of Jasmine tea extract and wildflower dark honey reduced Listeria monocytogenes by 10 to 20 percent. Similar reductions of the pathogen were recorded when applied to hot dogs."

It worked well in hot dogs too. The article speculates creating a tea based surface wash for meat and veggies.

I wonder what kind of flavoring it could also add to our food? Green tea infused pork loin? Kobe jasmine steak? The combinations are endless.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319203217.htm

A vitamin in cocoa?

Another study that says cocoa is good for you, but this time because of the prescence of epicatechin. Epicatechin is also found in teas, wine, chocolate and some fruit and vegetables.

Here's the scoop: "Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people in Panama. He found that the risk of 4 of the 5 most common killer diseases: stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes, is reduced to less then 10% in the Kuna. They can drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week. Natural cocoa has high levels of epicatechin.
'If these observations predict the future, then we can say without blushing that they are among the most important observations in the history of medicine,' Hollenberg says. 'We all agree that penicillin and anaesthesia are enormously important. But epicatechin could potentially get rid of 4 of the 5 most common diseases in the western world, how important does that make epicatechin?... "

Sounds like a wonderful pipe dream, but...
...now all we need to do is a double blind study out here where people get to drink cocoa with or without epicatechin for a while, and see if the 'with epicatechin' group gets any healthier. :-)
Or, if we decided to adopt the lifestyle of the Kuna of Panama, we might be a lot healthier too.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070311202024.htm

Automating homemade waffles

The project was crafted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and looks to be constructed primarily of wood, strings, and pulleys.



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