A small trial assigned 74 people with high cholesterol who met statin criteria either to fish oil and red yeast rice plus a 12-week lifestyle program, or to 40 mg of simvastatin daily for three months. The authors report the supplement combination lowered LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
Food Consumer
Comments
Food diary helps weight loss, but would you keep writing it till you die?
In a Kaiser Permanente study of more than 1,500 overweight and obese adults who attended 20 weekly group meetings and followed the DASH plan, participants lost an average of 13 pounds in five months, and those who kept a daily food diary lost twice as much and kept it off.
Lifestyle
Overweight linked to breast cancer in postmenopausal women
A study that followed more than 60,000 Swedish women for two decades found overweight and insulin-resistant postmenopausal women were less likely to be diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and more likely to be diagnosed with larger stage 2 to 4 tumors, researcher Anne Cust reported.
Nutrition
Red wine compound may help middle-aged men’s heart
In an NIA study, resveratrol mimicked some effects of calorie restriction in mice, preventing aging- and obesity-related cardiovascular decline and lowering total cholesterol, but it did not extend lifespan in mice on a standard diet. Its effects in humans remain to be studied.
Politics
Warning Labels for Coloured Foods: Campaigners call for stronger action
As the European Parliament takes up rules requiring warning labels on six food colours, the Food Commission's Anna Glayzer argues the labels shift the burden onto parents and the dyes should simply be banned, citing the Southampton study linking them to hyperactivity in children.
Diet
Early life nutrition enhances intellectual capability in adulthood
Guatemalan children given the protein-rich supplement atole from birth to 24 months later scored higher as adults on reading comprehension and cognitive tests, a gain equal to about half a year of schooling and up to 1.2 years in girls. Published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Sci-Tech
Scientists Test Method for Sanitizing Leafy Produce
ARS food technologist Yaguang Luo reformulated a produce wash to outperform chlorine and, with University of Illinois colleagues, paired it with ultrasound. The combination cut E. coli on spinach by 4.5 logs, from about 300,000 colony-forming units to under 10.
Supplements
Oral xylitol syrup helps prevent early childhood caries
In a Marshall Islands trial, children aged 6 to 15 months took daily xylitol syrup and 76 percent finished free of tooth decay, against 48 percent of controls. The report notes side effects went unreported and that xylitol, like most sugar alcohols, can act as a laxative.
Vitamins
Newborn vitamin A reduces infant mortality
Among 15,937 newborns in rural Bangladesh, a single 50,000 IU dose of vitamin A at birth was followed by a death rate of 3.85% versus 4.51% on placebo, a 15% reduction. Researchers say more studies are needed to see whether the benefit holds elsewhere.
Food
Eat watermelon to boost men's sexual performance?
Texas A&M researchers publicized citrulline, an arginine precursor concentrated in watermelon rind, as a boost to sexual performance. The writer counters that six or seven slices plus the rind would be needed, and that arginine studies used 2 to 5 gram daily doses.
Nutrition
Could infant formulas be a risk factor for SIDS?
A review found formula-fed infants were 2.11 times as likely to die of SIDS as breastfed infants. Soy formula supplies only 60 percent of the tryptophan in human milk, and low serotonin is a known SIDS risk, though the piece stresses SIDS has many possible causes.
Food
Breastfeeding linked to a range of health benefits for infants
A review of 43 primary studies and 29 systematic reviews ties breastfeeding to lower risk of infections, asthma, obesity, diabetes, leukemia and SIDS in infants, and of type 2 diabetes, breast and ovarian cancer and depression in mothers. Most studies were observational.
Food
Study explains why broccoli fights prostate cancer
In a PLoS One study, 24 men with precancerous prostate lesions ate four extra weekly servings of broccoli or peas for a year. The broccoli group showed hundreds of changes in cancer-related genes, which the researchers offer as a possible mechanism.
Food
Drinking green tea helps prevent heart disease
A Greek study gave 14 healthy volunteers green tea, diluted caffeine or hot water and found that within 30 minutes the cells lining their blood vessels worked better, relaxing arteries and easing blood flow. Researchers credit flavonoids, which green tea carries more of than black tea.
Politics
Emergency Regs Needed for Tracking Produce, Food Groups Say
The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumer Federation of America asked FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach for emergency rules requiring produce traceability, arguing standardized farm-to-retailer codes would speed Salmonella and E. coli outbreak investigations.
Politics
Organic Valley—A Crisis in Confidence?
The author corrects two errors in an earlier story: the Natural Prairie dairy in West Texas runs 8,000 to 9,000 head rather than 5,000, making it the largest “organic” dairy in the U.S., and Organic Valley did not stop buying its milk in June as its CEO had said it would.
Diet
Want to live a bit longer? Cut calorie intake!
In a one-year Saint Louis University trial, sedentary men and postmenopausal women who cut 300 to 500 calories a day ended up with lower levels of the thyroid hormone T3 than exercisers or controls, consistent with a theory that calorie restriction slows aging.
Food
Green tea reduces an important risk factor for heart disease
In a randomised trial, healthy volunteers' brachial artery dilatation rose significantly after they drank green tea, peaking at 3.9 percent after 30 minutes, while caffeine and hot water had no significant effect. Endothelial dysfunction is a key step in atherosclerosis.
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