MIT researchers fed gerbils combinations of choline, uridine monophosphate and DHA. Those given choline with UMP and/or DHA did better at tasks such as navigating mazes, and their brains showed biochemical signs of extra synapse activity. The authors hope people respond similarly.
Food Consumer
Law & Regulations
Big Apple enforces trans fat ban in eateries
From July 1, New York City restaurants must keep artificial trans fats out of all menu items, extending a first phase that covered only fry oils and spreads. Items under 0.5 grams per serving and sealed packaged foods stay exempt; first-phase compliance ran about 98 percent.
Law & Regulations
Big Apple enforces trans fat ban in eateries
From July 1, New York City restaurants must keep artificial trans fat out of all menu items, including baked goods and frozen foods. The rule still allows under 0.5 grams per serving and exempts sealed manufacturer packaging. First-phase compliance ran about 98 percent.
Food
Caffeine may help prevent MS
Mice given a daily caffeine dose equivalent to 6 to 8 cups of coffee were protected from a condition resembling multiple sclerosis. Linda Thompson's team reported that caffeine kept adenosine from binding its receptor, a step T cells need to reach the central nervous system.
Environment
Pesticides Persist in Ground Water
USGS scientists sampling shallow ground water at four U.S. sites found the compounds detected most often were triazine and chloroacetanilide herbicides and their degradation products. None of the insecticides or fungicides examined turned up in the samples.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Sweet 'n Crunchy Raisin Granola
An AICR recipe for raisin granola made from rolled oats, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, maple syrup and canola oil, baked at 300 degrees with the raisins added partway through. Makes 10 servings at 250 calories and 4 g fiber each.
Food
Watermelon May Have Viagra-Effect
Texas A&M researchers say watermelon's citrulline converts in the body to arginine, which relaxes blood vessels much as Viagra does, and may raise libido. The piece notes peanuts are a rich source of arginine and suggests eating those and vitamin C rather than relying on melon alone.
Agriculture
USDA Report Assesses 2008 Corn and Soybean Acreage
USDA's June Acreage report put 2008 corn plantings at 87.3 million acres, down 7 percent, with 78.9 million expected for grain, and soybeans at 74.5 million, up 17 percent. Re-interviews in flooded states showed harvest intentions off about 2 percent.
Other Diseases
Save the Gorillas
An argument that heart disease among zoo gorillas may trace to the shared primate inability to make vitamin C. Humans, apes and guinea pigs lack the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase, and Linus Pauling theorized that this defect is the cause of heart disease.
Supplements
Grape seed extract may help prevent Alzheimer's
A Mount Sinai study in the Journal of Neuroscience found grape seed polyphenolic extract blocked amyloid beta from clumping into high-molecular-weight oligomers in the lab, and that feeding it to mice sharply reduced the cognitive decline seen in an Alzheimer's-like disorder.
Food
Coffee drinkers at lower risk of liver cancer
Among 60,323 Finnish adults followed up to 19 years, the heaviest coffee drinkers were up to 68 percent less likely to develop liver cancer, while high serum GGT tripled the risk. An accompanying editorial cautions it remains unknown whether the coffee link is causal.
Food
Most consumers do not understand trans fat
A marketing study found many shoppers cannot tell whether 4 grams of trans fat is high or low, especially those who know little about the fat's effects. The authors say the FDA labeling rule, in force since 2006, will not help unless marketers and policymakers teach people what the numbers mean.
Letter to Editor
High fructose corn syrup, sugar, and several fruit juices all contain the same simple sugars
A letter to the editor from Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, responding to a June 25 article and defending high fructose corn syrup as no different from other common sweeteners.
Biotics
Prebiotic potential of almonds
Institute of Food Research scientists ran almonds through a simulated stomach and intestine, then a fermentation model, and found finely ground almonds significantly raised certain beneficial gut bacteria. Removing the fat removed the effect, suggesting the bacteria use almond lipid.
Food
Green leafy vegetables cut diabetes risk
Following 71,346 female nurses for 18 years, Lydia Bazzano's team linked each extra daily serving of green leafy vegetables to 9 percent lower diabetes risk and three daily servings of whole fruit to 18 percent lower risk. Fruit juice went the other way, with 18 percent higher risk.
Lifestyle
Pregnancy may help protect against bladder cancer
Female mice that never became pregnant had roughly 15 times as much bladder cancer as those that had been pregnant, University of Rochester researchers report in Urology, a clue to why the disease strikes about three times as many men as women.
Obesity
Not all sugars have an equal effect on obesity
Peter Havel's team at UC Davis reported that overweight and obese people who took about 15 percent of calories as pure fructose for ten weeks gained 1.5 kilograms and added intra-abdominal fat. A glucose group gained the same weight but not the deep belly fat.
Food
How to figure out the amount of trans fat in cooking oil
Labels may read zero grams of trans fat when a serving contains up to 0.5 gram. The piece shows the arithmetic: add the saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat, subtract that from total fat, and the difference is the trans fat the label leaves out.
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