The piece reprints FDA's questions and answers on dental amalgam, which is roughly 50 percent mercury by weight. FDA says that mercury may have neurotoxic effects on developing children and fetuses, and that its rulemaking will weigh whether released mercury vapor causes health problems.
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The Archive
More than 14,000 stories on food, diet and health, newest first.
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Phytochemicals
Apple pectin helps metabolic syndrome
In Zucker rats, a diet with 10 percent highly methoxylated apple pectin cut cholesterol about as much as beta-glucan did, and produced larger drops in body weight, triglycerides and blood glucose. Whether the same holds in people has not been tested.
Food
Dehydrated tomatoes may help prevent prostate cancer
University of Missouri researchers fed rats tomato powder, tomato paste, or paste plus FruHis, a carbohydrate found in dehydrated tomatoes, then exposed them to prostate carcinogens. Tumors turned up in 18 percent of the paste-plus-FruHis group against 63 percent of controls.
Diabetes
Foods good for diabetics
ACCORD found that lowering glycated hemoglobin raised death rates among diabetics, while ADVANCE and the VA Diabetes Trial found no cardiovascular survival benefit, though ADVANCE showed less kidney, eye and nerve damage. The piece then sets out nutrition basics for diabetics.
Minerals
Calcium alone does not reduce hip fracture risk
Bess Dawson-Hughes and colleagues pooled studies covering 170,991 women and 68,606 men and found calcium intake was not appreciably associated with hip fracture risk in either sex, even though calcium is still commonly recommended to prevent fractures.
Books
Book recommended : The End of Food
Paul Roberts argues industrialized food production has hit diminishing returns: high-volume systems breed new foodborne illness risks, yields of declining nutritional quality, a billion overweight alongside a billion who cannot get enough, and compromised soils and water systems.
Phytochemicals
Green tea extract fights genital and perianal warts
In a trial of 502 adults with anogenital warts, 57.5 percent using 15% sinecatechins ointment and 56.3 percent using the 10% version cleared all warts within 16 weeks, against 33.7 percent on placebo. The authors call the green tea extract effective and well tolerated.
Law & Regulations
FDA official says plastic chemical safe for children
An FDA science official told a House subcommittee that bisphenol A released from food-contact materials, including baby bottles, stays below levels that cause health effects. A National Toxicology Program draft report had raised some concern about effects seen in animal studies.
Supplements
St. John's wort may not help ADHD in children/teens
In an eight-week trial, 54 children and teens aged 6 to 17 took 300 mg of St. John's wort or placebo three times a day, with no significant difference in ADHD rating scores, inattentiveness or hyperactivity. The trial was small and the optimal dose is unknown.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Veggie Rollups
Cucumber, carrot and red pepper matchsticks marinate in seasoned rice vinegar, then join steamed kale, sliced turkey breast and low-fat cream cheese in whole-wheat tortillas for a portable mini-meal. Four servings at 320 calories each; the kale supplies vitamins K, A and C.
Vitamins
Sunshine vitamin may help prevent heart attack
Harvard researchers compared 454 men who had a heart attack or fatal heart disease with 900 who did not, and found men deficient in vitamin D faced 2.42 times the risk of those with sufficient levels. The authors caution that the sunlight pattern is not proof of cause.
Books
Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods
A book notice for Jeffrey Smith's Genetic Roulette, which lays out 65 claimed health risks of genetically engineered foods in two-page spreads and calls for an immediate ban, with endorsements from Michael Meacher, John Robbins and GMO researcher Arpad Pusztai.
Environment
Credibility Gap: Are New Food Packaging Chemicals Any Safer?
DuPont and seven other companies agreed to phase out PFOA, a likely human carcinogen found in fast-food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags, by 2015. An Environmental Working Group investigation found almost no public data on the replacements, which also persist and cross the placenta.
Supplements
Chinese red yeast rice extract reduces repeat heart attacks/mortality rates
In a five-year trial of nearly 5,000 Chinese heart attack patients, those taking the red yeast rice extract XueZhiKang were 45 percent less likely to have a repeat heart attack. Researcher David Capuzzi cautions that unregulated U.S. store supplements are not what was studied.
Phytochemicals
Eating lots of flavonoids may reduce risk of lung cancer in smokers
Among 2,590 middle-aged Finnish men followed 16.2 years, those with the highest flavonoid intake were 73 percent less likely to develop lung cancer, and every case occurred in a current or former smoker. No protective link appeared for prostate or colorectal cancer.
Phytochemicals
Red wine compound may retard cardiac aging process
Mice fed a low dose of resveratrol from 14 to 30 months of age showed blocked age-related change in 92% of heart genes, close to the 90% seen with calorie restriction, in a PLoS ONE study. Earlier work had tested only high doses; this one is still in mice.
Environment
Exposure to pesticide raises diabetes risk
Among licensed pesticide applicators, those in the highest exposure category had a 17 percent higher risk of diabetes than the least exposed, with 4.6 percent developing it against 3.4 percent. Researchers put the increase for some pesticides at 20 to 200 percent.
Food
Fruits, vegetables, and tea cut risk of lung cancer in smokers
In a case-control study of 558 lung cancer patients and 837 controls, higher intake of epicatechin, catechin, quercetin and kaempferol was linked to 32 to 51 percent lower lung cancer risk among smokers. The associations did not appear in nonsmokers.
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