Among 953 Northern Californians, those drinking a glass or more of red or white wine a day were 56 percent less likely to have Barrett's esophagus, a precursor to esophageal cancer. Beer and liquor showed no link, and drinking more wine added no further benefit.
Food Consumer
Vitamins
Low Serum vitamin D level means high risk of prostate cancer death
Among 160 prostate cancer patients followed about 44 months, men with medium vitamin D levels were 67 percent less likely, and those with high levels 84 percent less likely, to die of the disease than men with low levels, a Norwegian study in the British Journal of Cancer found.
Phytochemicals
Vegetable-based drug could suppress melanoma
Penn State researchers swapped selenium for sulfur in isothiocyanates from cruciferous vegetables and report in Clinical Cancer Research that the resulting isoselenocyanates inhibited tumor growth in mice by 50 to 60 percent at very low doses, more safely than conventional therapy.
Watch-List
Some dietary supplements may raise lung cancer risk
Following more than 77,000 adults aged 50 to 76 for a decade, researchers found smokers' lung cancer risk climbed with years of supplement use - 53% higher after four or more years of retinol and 102% higher for lutein. Too few cases among non-smokers to judge their risk.
Cooking
Recipe: Give Watercress a Try
A cook's case for watercress, a cruciferous vegetable and rich source of beta-carotene, with notes on pepper cress and upland cress, ideas for salads and grilled steak, and a dairy-free chilled watercress soup served icy cold.
Cooking
Recipe: Enjoy Pie for Dinner
A vegetable pie you can build from whatever fresh produce is on hand — squash, carrots, mushrooms, peppers — seasoned with marjoram and topped with Gruyere. The piece also makes the case for grape seed oil, which is low in saturated fat and holds up to high heat.
Politics
CU concerned about USDA's meat labeling efforts
Consumers Union wrote to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack objecting to USDA meat marketing labels, asking first that the “naturally raised” claim be withdrawn and warning that oversight of label terms is not harmonized across the department's agencies.
Cooking
How to cook and use green vegetables?
A method for kale and collard greens: heat the pan, add the chopped greens, splash in a little water, cover for 5 to 10 minutes, then salt. The writer suggests adding oil at the end, since heating oil turns a little of it into trans fat.
Lifestyle
Exercise could be the heart's fountain of youth
At Washington University in St. Louis, sedentary older adults who trained three to five days a week for about a year doubled their hearts' glucose uptake under drug-simulated exertion, as younger hearts do. By one metabolic measure, women benefited more than men.
Environment
Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products, air fresheners
Anne Steinemann of the University of Washington tested six top-selling laundry products and air fresheners and detected nearly 100 volatile organic compounds, none named on the labels. Every product emitted at least one regulated toxic chemical and five emitted a carcinogen.
Vitamins
Vitamin C injections slow tumor growth in mice
NIH researchers injected high-dose ascorbate into rodents carrying brain, ovarian and pancreatic tumors and cut tumor weight and growth rate by roughly half, tracing the effect to hydrogen peroxide forming around the tumors. Normal cells were unaffected.
Supplements
Sesame seed extract and konjac gum may help ward off Salmonella and E. coli
Petra Becker and colleagues at Wageningen exposed 18 food products to bacteria in the lab and found sesame seed extract and konjac gum bound the most E. coli and Salmonella, which may keep the bacteria from latching onto gut cells. Yeast, tomato and pumpkin also helped.
Cancer
Breast cancer: What you need to know
After Christina Applegate's breast cancer was found on a routine MRI, the piece reviews prevention research foodconsumer.org has covered, including a study in which female rats fed 250 mg of kelp daily lengthened their cycle 37 percent and cut estradiol 25 percent.
Vitamins
Micronutrients Protect against Arsenic Lesions
A cross-sectional study using baseline data from the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study in Araihazar, Bangladesh, is the first population-based attempt to link micronutrient intake to arsenic-induced skin lesions. It weighed B vitamins and vitamins A, C and E among 10,628 people.
Cancer
Sodium raises gastric cancer risk, vitamin E reduces it
An Italian case-control study of 230 gastric cancer patients and 547 controls found people in the top quartile for vitamin E, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene were 50, 48 and 58 percent less likely to have the disease, while all quartiles above the lowest sodium intake had about 2.5 times the risk.
Food
12 fruits and vegetables you don’t have to buy organic
Citing the Environmental Working Group, the piece names the 12 conventional fruits and vegetables carrying the fewest pesticides, among them broccoli, cabbage, bananas, mango, pineapple, avocado and onions, and the 12 worst, led by peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers and celery.
Comments
How to Stay Healthfully Hydrated
AICR advises drinking about 16 ounces two to three hours before exercise and 6 to 12 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes during it, with water usually the best choice for typical adult exercisers. Juices spiked with herbs may carry too little of the added ingredient to do anything.
Comments
Making Sense of Yogurt Choices
The American Institute for Cancer Research sorts through the yogurt aisle: all yogurts supply probiotics, though US evidence supports only help with lactose intolerance, and some brands now add prebiotics such as inulin that the Nutrition Facts panel will not reveal.
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