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July 2000
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Chewing The Fats: AHA Conference Prompts New Look At Monos, Polys, Trans
By Kerry Neville, M.S., R.D.
Advice about dietary fat has flip-flopped as much as the stock market recently, so it’s not surprising that people want to throw up their hands and go back to basics—butter. We know that’s not the answer. So, what is? In an effort to clear up some of the confusion, the American Heart Association (AHA) sponsored a conference of scientific experts last month to discuss dietary fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. Here, EN presents
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Keep Lungs Healthy: What to Eat to Help Prevent Respiratory Problems
By Linda Antinoro, J.D., R.D.
The dog days of summer bring thick and stagnant weather, leaving many of us gasping for air. But for the more than 30 million Americans living with a chronic lung disease, breathing can be a chore every day of the year. EN looks at the role nutrition plays in common respiratory disorders.
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Whats for Breakfast? EN Gets You Off to a Healthful Start
By Luanne Hughes, M.S., R.D.
Breakfast has long been identified as important for children. But what about adults? Lately, researchers have been paying more attention to the value of a good breakfast in an adult’s busy day and have found it is, indeed, as valuable to adults as it is to children. Findings from the Bogalusa (Louisiana) Heart Study and from the University of Wales-Swansea in the United Kingdom (where researchers compared three studies of adults and breakfast)
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Seal Helps Identify Quality Supplements
Faced with a vast array of supplements on store shelves, consumers could use some help cutting through the clutter. Now, ConsumerLab.com has come to the rescue. Founded by Tod Cooperman, M.D., the company provides independent analyses of supplement quality for common brands of herbal supplements, vitamins and, soon, other consumer products. Those that pass pre-set criteria may carry the CL certification seal for a fee. Last November, ConsumerLab.com released the results of its
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Soy Milk Needs Calcium Boost to Measure Up
The calcium in fortified soy beverages isn’t as well absorbed by the body as the calcium in cow’s milk, says Robert Heaney, M.D., of Creighton University in Omaha. As reported in the May issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, he and his colleagues found that the amount of calcium absorbed from five brands of soy milk was typically 25% less than the amount absorbed from cow’s milk. The researchers believe there
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Keep Weight Off By Adding Unsaturated Fats
Imagine eating more fat than usual to stay on a diet. At an American Heart Association conference on fatty acids last month (see feature story, page 1), researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston extolled the benefits of a Mediterranean-style diet for weight loss that did just that. In the study, 101 volunteers—mostly women—were split into two groups. One group limited fat intake to no more than 20% of calories. The other
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Web Finds
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez Looking for a way to find the latest medical journals? Check out the government’s National Library of Medicine site and type in a topic. It’s free and easy. You can narrow your search by year or journal. Abstracts of the articles come up and you can then borrow them from the Loansome Doc service through a medical library or buy them through a link to a journal’s website. www.medev.ch/pufa Click
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Research Roundup
Older women with vitamin B12 deficiency may be more prone to depression, according to research from the Women’s Health and Aging Study. Of 700 women aged 65 and older, those with a B12 deficiency were more than twice as likely to be severely depressed than women who weren’t deficient. A B12 deficiency may alter brain chemicals or cause a buildup of those involved in mood, say the researchers. American Journal of
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Dont Swallow Xenadrines Weight-Loss Claims
The Buzz: Can you lose 57 pounds in nine weeks? Not in a healthy way, but that hasn’t stopped Cytodyne Technologies from making such a bold declaration about its hot-selling Xenadrine RFA-1. Available at GNC and other such stores, this supplement claims to be a "clinically proven rapid fat-loss catalyst." The Basics: Xenadrine contains pantothenic acid, bitter orange, ma huang (ephedra), guarana, white willow bark, ginger and a "proprietary thermosynergist blend" of L-tyrosine,
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Its Time for Iced Tea: Refreshing, Healthful, But Oh, So Sweet
By Andrea D. Platzman, M.S., R.D.
Southerners know the perfect antidote to summer heat is sipping a tall glass of freshly brewed iced tea. Now that tea has taken on a healthful aura, marketers have joined the tea party, offering numerous cold concoctions flavored with spices or supplemented with healing herbs. For instance, the tongue-twister Tribal Tonics Island Peach Green Tea Relaxation Cocktail claims a benefit from added kava, although it’s doubtful it contains enough of the herb to
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Walk Your Way to Lower Stroke Risk
Walking and other moderate physical activity may ward off strokes in women, according to an eight-year Harvard study of 72,000 middle-aged female nurses. Women who expended the most energy from any activity were about half as likely to suffer the most common type of stroke—ischemic, caused by a blood clot to the brain—than the least active women. Brisk walking (3+ mph), in particular, was linked to the lowest risk, but even a half-hour,
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Government Guidelines Upstaged By Alternative
The 2000 edition of the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recently finalized, offers specific diet and lifestyle recommendations, something lacking in the past. The 10 new recommendations put more emphasis on whole grains and limits sugar. For the first time, they encourage physical activity and fitness, as well as safe food practices. That’s admirable. But while it’s a step in the right direction, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a pro-vegetarian action
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Cantaloupes: Scrub Em Before You Cut Em
Stop! Don’t slice that cantaloupe until you’ve washed the outside. Cutting through a melon can draw in bacteria from the surface, contaminating the flesh inside. That’s what seems to have happened in a recent outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning that sickened some 40 people in western states. Salmonella Risk. This isn’t the first such incident. A similar outbreak in 1991 affected 400 people; in 1997 another 20 fell ill. Symptoms of Salmonella, which
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Are Disease-Specific Herb Formulas a Good Thing?
Q. I’ve noticed new vitamin-mineral-herb combinations for specific conditions like heart health, menopause, memory and prostate health. Do they work? A. There’s no data showing these combos work any better than single herbs. In fact, experts are concerned about the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to some formulas. For example, the makers of Centrum and One-A-Day have each recently launched a line of supplements (Centrum Focused Formulas and One-A-Day Specialized Blends) promoted as tailor-made for conditions
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Underactive Thyroid Problems Best Left to Medical Treatment
Q. I’ve been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid gland. Are there natural or diet remedies to boost it? A. Don’t count on any, unless you’re malnourished or iodine deficient, says Alan Gaby, M.D., professor of therapeutic nutrition at Bastyr University in Washington State. You might do more harm than good. What’s most important is that your condition be treated and monitored by a physician to prevent long-term consequences, which include high cholesterol and
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