Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB97, making California the first state to bar artificial trans fat from restaurants, phased out of most foods by Jan 1, 2010 and baked goods by 2011. School cafeterias are exempt because added trans fat is already banned in schools.
Food Consumer
Comments
Soyfoods Do Not Impact Sperm Count
Researchers quoted here say headlines tying soy to lower sperm counts overstate a small retrospective study. Jorge Chavarro found soy and isoflavone intake unrelated to sperm count, ejaculate volume, motility or morphology, and his 'high' intake category was modest.
Supplements
Omega-3 fatty acids could slow acute wound healing
Blister wounds on people taking fish oil healed in about the same time as those on placebo, but their blister fluid held higher levels of inflammation-related proteins than researchers expected. Lead author Jodi McDaniel says if the fatty acids do delay healing, surgical patients might pause them.
Obesity
Limiting fructose may boost weight loss
Elizabeth Parks of UT Southwestern reports in the Journal of Nutrition that people turn fructose into body fat surprisingly fast, and that cutting fructose may be one reason low-carbohydrate diets work. Which carbohydrates you eat may matter as much as how many calories.
Food Safety
Energy Drinks Linked to Risk-Taking Behaviors Among College Students
University at Buffalo researcher Kathleen Miller reports two studies linking energy drinks to risk-taking among college students and to a toxic jock identity among college athletes. She notes the drinks carry three to ten times the caffeine of a soft drink, plus taurine and herbal extracts.
Minerals
Calcium may be the key to understanding Alzheimer's disease
Penn researchers report in Neuron that mutations in presenilin 1 and 2, linked to inherited early-onset Alzheimer's, disrupt calcium flow in neurons through the InsP3 receptor channel. Cells with mutant PS1 also processed more amyloid beta, suggesting targets for new therapies.
Food
Cranberry juice creates energy barrier that keeps bacteria away from cells
Worcester Polytechnic researchers exposed two E. coli varieties to different cranberry juice concentrations and found the juice altered the bacteria's thermodynamic properties, creating an energy barrier that makes it harder for fimbriaed bacteria to latch onto cells.
Watch-List
Soy foods are associated with lower sperm concentrations
Harvard researchers who analysed soy intake among 99 men at a fertility clinic found those eating the most soy foods averaged 41 million fewer sperm per millilitre than men eating none, with the association most marked in overweight and obese men.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Whole-Grain Salad
An AICR recipe combining cooled brown rice with bell pepper, radish, scallions, dried fruit, pine nuts and part-skim mozzarella, dressed with lime juice, olive oil and herbs. It makes six one-cup servings at 230 calories each.
Sci-Tech
How carrots help us see the color orange
Max Planck researchers showed people familiar orange objects in an ambiguous yellow-orange hue, and those viewers later called that hue orange -- knowledge of the object apparently redrew the color boundary. Showing the same hues on objects that could be any color produced no such shift.
Advisories
Are You Storing Food Safely?
Refrigerate perishables within two hours, or one hour above 90 degrees; keep the refrigerator at or below 40 degrees and the freezer at 0; check with an appliance thermometer; leave room for air to circulate; and follow the storage directions on labels.
Law & Regulations
New York City starts counting calories in restaurants
New York City inspectors can now fine restaurants $200 to $2,000 for failing to post calorie counts. The rule covers chains with 15 or more outlets nationwide, about 2,000 restaurants, and 277 had been cited by July 12. A ban on artificial trans fat in menu items also took effect July 1.
Politics
AHA responds to Israel diet/weight loss study
The American Heart Association says it no longer recommends the low-fat diet used in a widely reported Israeli weight loss study, having revised that 2000 guidance in 2006. Rather than capping total fat, it now urges avoiding trans and saturated fat and eating fruit, vegetables and fish.
Obesity
Low carb diet effective at helping weight loss for a short term
A two-year trial of low-carbohydrate, low-fat and Mediterranean diets produced no more than about 10 pounds of weight loss despite tight calorie control and counselling, with the low-carb diet doing best. An editor's note cautions those dieters were steered toward vegetarian fat and protein.
Diabetes
Fruit juice linked to increased diabetes risk
Among 71,000 women followed 18 years in the Nurses' Health Study, Lydia Bazzano's team found three extra daily servings of whole fruit went with 18% lower type 2 diabetes risk, while one extra serving of fruit juice went with higher risk.
Drug
Exposure to x-ray linked to increased risk of prostate cancer
Men who had a hip or pelvic X-ray or barium enema a decade earlier were 2.5 times more likely to have prostate cancer than the general population, in a study of 431 men diagnosed before 60. The researchers stress this is an association, with no proof the radiological tests caused the increase.
Cancer
Vitamin A pushes breast cancer to form blood vessel cells
Georgetown researchers found that vitamin A applied to breast cancer cells switches on genes that push tumor stem cells to become endothelial cells able to build blood vessels. Senior author Stephen Byers calls it a disturbing hint that retinoid drugs might stimulate tumor growth.
Other Diseases
Low vitamin D harms bones of IBD patients
Researchers in Manitoba measured bone density and vitamin D in 101 people with inflammatory bowel disease. Only 22 had optimal vitamin D levels, and higher levels went with higher bone density, suggesting adequate vitamin D may help ward off bone disease in these patients.
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