Nutrition Frenzy

Hello readers, taking a break for a few days. Any questions, comments or concerns, write below or email.

Male Abs

Fight fat with fat? The newest obesity theory suggests we may one day be able to do just that.

Just like good and bad cholesterol, there apparently are good and bad types of body fat. Scientists until recently believed this good fat, which spurs the body to burn calories to generate body heat, played an important role in keeping infants warm but by adulthood was mostly gone or inactive.

Now three studies — from researchers in Boston, Finland and the Netherlands — show that some good fat remains in adults, affecting metabolism and potentially offering a target to help people shed pounds.

Brown is good

The good fat is actually brownish, while the more predominant bad fat is white or yellow. Brown fat is stored mostly around the neck and under the collarbone. White fat tends to concentrate around the waistline, where it stores excess energy and releases chemicals that control metabolism and the use of insulin.

All three research groups documented the presence and activity of the brown fat by examining tissue samples from some patients and using high-tech imaging that indicated how much sugar, and therefore calories, the fat burned.

One group from Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School and three hospitals in Boston looked at scans done on nearly 2,000 patients to diagnose various health problems. The other two groups scanned small numbers of patients, first at room temperature and then after a couple hours in mild cold, about 60 degrees.

Here’s what the scientists learned about brown fat:

Lean people had far more than overweight and obese people, especially among older folks.
It burns far more calories and generates more body heat when people are in a cooler environment.
Women were more likely to have it than men, and their deposits were larger and more active.

Acai Berries

Acai berries…perhaps you’ve heard of them? Remember the hype from pomegranates a couple of years ago? Well, the torch appears to have been passed to the Brazilian berry and the hype has been cranked up a few notches. The Center For Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) blew the whistle last week on web-based acai scams, which they say are fooling consumers with fake blogs, fake endorsements, and fishy science.

According to CSPI there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that acai pills will help shed pounds, flatten tummies, cleanse colons, enhance sexual desire, etc. People appear to be getting scammed here two ways. There’s the lack of science behind these Internet health claims and then there’s the credit card scam-many consumers have had trouble stopping recurrent charges on their credit cards when they cancel their “free” trials. CSPI is reporting that even web sites purporting to warn people about acai-related scams are themselves perpetrating scams, some of which appear to be linked to overseas banks. So be careful out there people, you are probably more likely to lose your money rather than your extra weight.

Let’s get back to the berry: What do we really know about it nutritionally?

Acai juice does contribute antioxidants but less so than Concord grape juice, blueberry juice and black cherry juice, according to a recent analysis* that used 4 different antioxidant potency tests. It contains more antioxidants, however, than cranberry, orange and apple juices.

Beyond that, we don’t really know much more than this. I was trying to find an impartial source for the information on its nutrition content. My computer software program didn’t have anything on it and the USDA database only had some information on the V8 Fusion blend that contains acai berry.

Until more is known and the hype (and price) go down on acai berry juices and food products, you can always pick up a bottle of 100% concord grape juice for a couple of bucks (just saying)… Each 8 ounce serving contains 170 calories, 42 grams carbohydrate, 250 mg potassium, 20% daily value for vitamin C and copious antioxidant-acting polypenols that have been linked to all sorts of good things for your body.

weight scale

Researchers calculated the body mass index from a sample of 8,550 Hispanic, black, white, Asian and Native American 4-year-olds. The children were born in 2001, and in 2005, their height and weight were measured — 18.4 percent of them were obese.

“Significant differences in the prevalence of obesity between racial/ethnic groups were evident at 4 years of age,” the researchers wrote in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Using body mass index, they found that 31.2 percent of American Indian/Native Alaskans, 22 percent of Hispanics, 20.8 percent of blacks, 15.9 percent of whites and 12.8 percent of Asians were obese.

“It’s surprising that there are large differences by racial/ethnic group by that age,” said Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University and lead study author.

Anderson and co-author Robert Whitaker’s analysis showed that children were becoming obese even before encountering soda and candy vending machines in schools.

“These results really do point to the need for us to focus attention on early childhood and the need for research to understand how these differences can emerge so early,” Anderson said. “To do that, we may need to understand the different family and cultural factors that are at play in these children’s lives.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults fare no better. Approximately 45 percent of blacks, 36.8 percent of Mexican Americans and 30 percent of whites are obese.

“It’s a very bad sign if we see obesity at a young age,” Robinson said. “When we see children obese at age 4, we’re likely to see complications — high blood pressure, abnormal lipids — which can lead to heart disease and stroke, diabetes in children.”

Broccoli

Eating two and a half ounces of baby broccoli daily for two months may protect against a common stomach bug that is linked to gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer, a study in Japan has found.

Fresh broccoli sprouts contain plenty of sulforaphane, a natural biochemical that appears to trigger the production of enzymes in the gut that protect against oxygen radicals, DNA-damaging chemicals, and inflammation.

In an article published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, scientists found that eating two and a half ounces of baby broccoli daily may help stave off some serious health problems.

“We identified a food that, if eaten regularly, might potentially have an effect on the cause of a lot of gastric problems and perhaps even ultimately help prevent stomach cancer,” wrote Jed Fahey, nutritional biochemist in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Cancer Chemoprotection Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

It has long been known that sulforaphane is a potent antibiotic against Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes gastritis, ulcers and stomach cancer. But this is the first trial showing the effects of the compound on people.

“Broccoli sprouts have a much higher concentration of sulforaphane than mature heads (broccoli),” Fahey explained.

In their study, the researchers gave 25 people in Japan who were infected with Helicobacter pylori 70 grams per day of broccoli sprouts for two months.

Another 25 infected people consumed an equivalent amount of alfalfa sprouts which don’t contain sulforaphane.

“We know that a dose of a couple ounces a day of broccoli sprouts is enough to elevate the body’s protective enzymes,” Fahey said. “That is the mechanism by which we think a lot of the chemoprotective effects are occurring.”

apricot wheat germ muffin

Research shows that people who eat meals regularly throughout the day tend to have smaller waists than people who sometimes skip breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Get Regular
Regular eaters not only weigh less and have smaller waists but also are less likely to develop metabolic syndrome or experience insulin resistance — conditions that can pave the way for heart disease and diabetes.

Plan for More
An even better plan? Eat many small meals throughout the day instead of three large ones. This helps keep your appetite from getting out of control, so you eat less overall throughout the day.

Anti-Meal-Skipper Recipe
Are you typically too time-pressed to eat breakfast? Make these simple, scrumptious muffins this weekend so you’ll have an easy grab-and-go option during the week:

Apricot-Wheat Germ MuffinsNutty toasted wheat germ and tangy dried apricots give these muffins a homey, satisfying flavor. Plumping dried fruit before adding it to the batter keeps the muffins moist.

Ingredients
3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup orange juice, divided
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon toasted wheat germ, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk, (see Tip)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Combine apricots and 1/4 cup orange juice in a small bowl. Cover with vented plastic wrap and microwave on high for 1 minute. (Alternatively, bring to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat.) Set aside to plump.
3. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk, oil, orange zest, vanilla and remaining 1/4 cup orange juice. Add to the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Add apricots and mix just until blended. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon wheat germ.
5. Bake the muffins until lightly browned and the tops spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly.

Nutrition Information
Per muffin
Calories: 242
Carbohydrates: 38g
Fat: 7g
Saturated Fat: 1g
Monounsaturated Fat: 3g
Protein: 7g
Cholesterol: 36mg
Dietary Fiber: 4g
Potassium: 138mg
Sodium: 184mg

Dollar Signs

Buy direct
Jake Brown, a communications director in Montpelier, Vermont, bypasses the supermarket whenever possible. Each fall, he buys a lamb from the farmer down the road, paying $70 for 50 pounds of meat that comes butchered and wrapped in meal-size portions. Another local farmer sells him a box of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables each week at a 15 percent discount.

Make it automatic
Set up a shopping list at a site such as peapod.com or freshdirect.com in the East, or winderfarms.com in the West, and you can do a week’s shopping in minutes and have it delivered. For nonperishable items, consider amazon.com, where signing up for regular deliveries will knock 15 percent off your bill.

Don’t rule out warehouses
Bottom line: Buying in bulk can save significant money. Tropicana orange juice costs $1.31 a quart at Costco versus $2 a quart at Giant. Filippo Berio extra-virgin olive oil costs $6 a quart, versus $15.92 a quart at Giant. Got a newborn? Parents can save about 10 cents a diaper by going with the Costco brand; that adds up to nearly $200 saved a year.

the frozen-food aisle
While your instinct may be to buy fresh food, you can save time and boost the nutrition factor by heading to the freezer case.
Bottom line: You’ll cut your vegetable bill in half by going with frozen. In a survey, we found that fresh broccoli, snap peas, squash, and green peppers ran $3 or more a pound, while the frozen versions were $1.50 or less a pound. To maximize your savings, look for bags of frozen vegetables, which tend to cost less than the boxed variety.

Know when to go organic
When is it worth it to go out of your way and spend more on organic foods? Studies have shown benefits for milk and eggs, largely because they have more omega-3 fatty acids.

Plant a garden
The cheapest, most convenient, most carbon-footprint-friendly source for healthful food is your own backyard. Even a little container garden can produce enough lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs for a summer’s worth of salads.

Spring

When the weather warms up, ice cream shops have lines out their doors. And unless you’re careful, the calories in these chilly treats add up in a hurry. So forget the toppings, candy mix-ins, and waffle cones and stick with a single scoop of your favorite ice cream.

Hot dogs, plain, with chili and cheese, or wrapped in cornbread, go hand in hand with baseball season, whether you’re at a Little League game or the big-league ballpark.

Chocolates show up around Easter, again on Mother’s Day, perhaps on Father’s Day, and in some households, every day. Dark chocolate does has some health benefits, but only if you eat a small portion — not an entire chocolate bunny.

Brunch is popular in spring, but brunch foods can wreak havoc on your diet. Typical brunches include breakfast casseroles or quiches loaded with sausages, cheese, butter and cream, all served with hot cross buns, cinnamon rolls, or pastries.

Topping, dressings and sauces on otherwise spring healthy foods can spell diet disaster. “Hollandaise sauce on asparagus, whipped cream on strawberries, or high-fat salad dressings on salads turn a perfectly healthy food into a high calorie landmine.

Seasonal beverages like ice cream drinks, iced coffee drinks, margaritas, tropical cocktails and smoothies are favorites on spring break or for sipping with friends on the deck.

Passover desserts made with nuts, chocolate, and coconut can be calorie landmines.

Salads loaded with mayo, such as chicken and potato salad, are easy to tote in picnic baskets but are also loaded with fat and calories.

Cup of Coffee

Let’s hear it for Coffee!!! HOORAH!!!

That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

So the researcher, a former competitive cyclist, divided 25 fit, college-aged males into two distinct groups: subjects whose everyday caffeine consumption was extremely low to non-existent, and those with an average caffeine intake of about 400 milligrams a day, the equivalent of three to four cups of coffee.

Unexpected results
After completing an initial exercise test in the lab on a stationary bike to determine maximal oxygen consumption or aerobic power, subjects returned for two monitored high-intensity, 30-minute exercise sessions.

An hour prior to each session, cyclists — who had been instructed not to consume caffeine during the prior 24-hour period — were given a pill. On one occasion, it contained a dose of caffeine measuring 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two to three cups of coffee); the other time, they received a placebo.

During both exercise periods, subjects’ perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain was recorded at regular intervals, along with data on oxygen consumption, heart rate and work rate.

Vegetables

Many vegetables taste great with a dip or dressing. Try a low-fat salad dressing with raw broccoli, red and green peppers, celery sticks or cauliflower.
Add color to salads by adding baby carrots, shredded red cabbage, or spinach leaves. Include in-season vegetables for variety through the year.
Include cooked dry beans or peas in flavorful mixed dishes, such as chili or minestrone soup.
Decorate plates or serving dishes with vegetable slices.
Keep a bowl of cut-up vegetables in a see-through container in the refrigerator. Carrot and celery sticks are traditional, but consider broccoli florettes, cucumber slices, or red or green pepper strips.
Vegetable tips for children:

Set a good example for children by eating vegetables with meals and as snacks.
Let children decide on the dinner vegetables or what goes into salads.
Depending on their age, children can help shop for, clean, peel, or cut up vegetables.
Allow children to pick a new vegetable to try while shopping.
Use cut-up vegetables as part of afternoon snacks.
Children often prefer foods served separately. So, rather than mixed vegetables try serving two vegetables separately.
Keep it safe:

Wash vegetables before preparing or eating them. Under clean, running water, rub vegetables briskly with your hands to remove dirt and surface microorganisms. Dry after washing.
Keep vegetables separate from raw meat, poultry and seafood while shopping, preparing, or storing

Meats and Protein

How much protein do you need to stay healthy? What’s the best source of protein?

Protein requirements are complicated because the amount we need changes with age.

Infants require about 10 grams a day.
Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
Adult women need about 46 grams a day.
One important exception is pregnant or lactating women, when the recommended intake rises to 71 grams of protein a day.

Another way to count protein requirements is as a percentage of calories. The USDA’s MyPyramid plan suggests that protein make up between 17% to 21% percent of total calories. The Institute of Medicine recommends we get at least 10% and no more than 35% of calories from protein.

Are You Getting Enough Protein?
Many of us might do well to add a few additional sources of protein.

A 2008 analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2003-2004 found that 7.7% of adolescent females and about 8% of older adult women weren’t hitting the minimum recommended amount of protein.

As a proportion of total calories, the median intake of protein in children was 13.4%, below the ideal range. Men aged 51 to 70 consumed 16% of their calories in protein, also a little below the recommended amount.

The Risks of Too Little Protein
That shortfall could mean trouble. Protein is important to many physiological functions, from building muscle and bone to keeping cells in good working order.

Recent studies suggest that protein makes a meal more satiating, which in turn could help people maintain a healthy weight. Indeed, a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that increasing protein from 15% to 30% of total calories — and reducing fat from 35% to 20% of calories — resulted in sustained weight loss.

Pills

The study, which followed 63 overweight or obese women, found that those who took a calcium-plus-vitamin-D supplement in addition to a lower-calorie diet lost no more body fat over 15 weeks than those given a placebo.

When the researchers looked at only those women with a very low calcium intake before the study, the supplement did seem to have a benefit.

Among the women — who had been getting less than 600 milligrams of calcium per day — the calcium/vitamin D supplement spurred greater reductions in weight and body fat.

While the reason for the benefit is unclear, there was evidence that the supplement helped curb women’s appetite for fatty food, the researchers report in the British Journal of Nutrition.

During a buffet-style test meal, the study found, women who’d been taking the supplement ate less fat than they had at a test meal done at the study’s start. The same was not true of women in the placebo group, however.

For the study, the researchers had 63 overweight middle-aged women go on a calorie-restricted diet. All had been getting inadequate calcium in their diets — less than 800 mg, compared with the recommended 1,000 mg for women ages 19 to 50.

Half of the women were randomly assigned to take a calcium/vitamin D supplement twice a day, which provided 1,200 mg of calcium daily. The other half took placebo pills.

Only women with the lowest calcium intake prior to the study — less than 600 mg — seemed to get added fat-loss benefits from the supplement. Supplement users lost 13 pounds, on average, versus 3 pounds in the placebo group.

While the results from the test meals suggest that extra calcium may help calcium-deficient women curb their appetites while dieting, more research is needed to confirm that, according to Tremblay’s team.

Meats

The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That’s compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

For processed meats, the increased risks for large quantities were slightly lower overall than for red meat. The researchers compared deaths in the people with the highest intakes to deaths in people with the lowest to calculate the increased risk.

So watch out for how much red meat you eat. If you have concerns, contact your dietician, health care physican or nurse.

Salt Crystals

Kidney stones are usually an adult malady, one that is notorious for causing excruciating pain — pain worse than childbirth. But while the number of affected children isn’t huge, kids with kidney stones have been turning up in rising numbers at hospitals around the country.

At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale.

In a 2007 study in the Journal of Urology, doctors at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center reported a nearly fivefold increase in children brought in with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005. In 2005, 61 youngsters were treated there for stones.

Dr. David Hatch at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., near Chicago, also has seen an increase. His youngest patient was a cranky 8-month-old girl whose mother found a pea-size kidney stone in her diaper.

Kids’ stones have been the talk of recent pediatric kidney specialists’ conferences, said Dr. Uri Alon, director of the bone and mineral disorders clinic at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.

So far, the only evidence is anecdotal. But Alon is involved in research trying to determine if the increase is real and not just the result of greater awareness and better ways of detecting stones. Alon also is studying whether improved nutrition can prevent kids’ kidney stones.

Eating too much salt can result in excess calcium in the urine. In children, most stones are calcium-based, and Alon said their eating habits, plus drinking too little water, puts them at risk. Plenty of water is generally recommended to help prevent kidney stones.

Fish

Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday.

Findings from this first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations.

“The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it,” said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

In an ongoing investigation, The Associated Press has reported trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals have been detected in drinking water provided to at least 46 million Americans.

The EPA has called for additional studies about the impact on humans of long-term consumption of minute amounts of medicines in their drinking water, especially in unknown combinations. Limited laboratory studies have shown that human cells failed to grow or took unusual shapes when exposed to combinations of some pharmaceuticals found in drinking water.

“This pilot study is one important way that EPA is increasing its scientific knowledge about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment,” said EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Rudzinski. She said the completed and expanded EPA sampling for pharmaceuticals and other compounds in fish and surface water is part of the agency’s National Rivers and Stream Assessment.