BBC NEWS | Health | Healthy fats 'halve risk of MND'

BBC NEWS | Health | Healthy fats 'halve risk of MND':

"Eating a high amount of polyunsaturated fats and vitamin E may halve the risk of developing motor neurone disease, a study suggests.

Polyunsaturated fats include omega 3, in certain vegetable oils and omega 6, in fish and green leafy vegetables.

Dutch researchers found people who had the highest daily intake of the fats had a 60% lower risk of developing MND compared to those who ate the least.

The study will appear in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry."

BBC NEWS | Health | Healthy fats 'halve risk of MND'

BBC NEWS | Health | Healthy fats 'halve risk of MND':

"Eating a high amount of polyunsaturated fats and vitamin E may halve the risk of developing motor neurone disease, a study suggests.

Polyunsaturated fats include omega 3, in certain vegetable oils and omega 6, in fish and green leafy vegetables.

Dutch researchers found people who had the highest daily intake of the fats had a 60% lower risk of developing MND compared to those who ate the least.

The study will appear in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry."

Pretzel logic: Researcher claims food choices reflect people's personalities

This was also in the OTH today...great stuff:...lol..

Pretzel logic: Researcher claims food choices reflect people's personalities:

"Everything we do reflects our personality, from our favorite colors to our choice of cars. Food is the same way,' Hirsch said. 'The question is: Are we smart enough to figure out what it means?'"

I love the Ice Cream test----for the record: either vanilla or mint chocolate chip.

Beware of the Salt Shockers

Beware of the Salt Shockers:

"You know salty snacks like chips, pretzels, and crackers are loaded with sodium. But do you realize most of the salt you consume comes from the foods you're picking at the grocery store? It's not just the salt shaker, says Rosemary Yurczyk, MS, RD, CDE, dietitian and diabetes educator at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento"

Calcium supplements have ‘little benefit’ for kids

Calcium supplements have ‘little benefit’ for kids:

"19/04/2006 - A review of 19 studies has concluded that kids do not benefit from calcium supplements and fortified foods, despite many not meeting recommended daily intakes of the mineral.

There has been considerable debate about childhood calcium intake and the onset of osteoporosis in adulthood, a disease that affects over 75 million people in Europe, the USA and Japan. “The review shows that supplementing the diet with calcium in healthy children has little benefit for bone health,” said lead author Tania Winzenberg from the Menzies Research Institute, Australia.

Published in the current issue of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Issue 2, 2006), the researchers pooled 19 intervention studies investigating the effects of extra calcium for boys and girls aged three to 18."

Mediterranean Diet May Help Prevent Alzheimer's - Forbes.com

Mediterranean Diet May Help Prevent Alzheimer's - Forbes.com:

"The heart-healthy benefits of the so-called Mediterranean diet are well known, but new research suggests the eating plan may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, too.

People who carefully followed the Mediterranean diet -- heavy on fish, fruits and vegetables, monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, and low on meat and dairy products -- had a 40 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's than those who ate the conventional American diet."

Fat contained in fast food varies by country: study - Yahoo! News

One thing that I do not understand is how people continue to eat out so much:

Fat contained in fast food varies by country: study - Yahoo! News:

"Three Danish doctors found widely varying levels of unsaturated fatty acid known as 'trans fat' in foods purchased at McDonald's Corp and KFC fast food chains in 20 countries.

Studies show eating 5 grams of the fat per day increases the risk of heart disease by 25 percent.

In the large nuggets and fries meal, the amount of trans fat varied from less than 1 gram in Denmark to more than 10 grams in New York City, according to the research published in this week's
New England Journal of Medicine"

and also:

"In February, McDonald's announced that it had understated the amount of fat and calories in its french fries. It had originally said its large serving of fries had 6 grams of trans fat. The company said the correct number was now 8."

Stash Tea: The History of Tea

Stash Tea: The History of Tea: Very interesting site!

For instance, did you know?

"Tea was the major beverage served in the coffee houses, but they were so named because coffee arrived in England some years before tea....they were called 'Penny Universities' because for a penny any man could obtain a pot of tea, a copy of the newspaper, and engage in conversation with the sharpest wits of the day. The various houses specialized in selected areas of interest, some serving attorneys, some authors, others the military....One such beverage house was owned by Edward Lloyd and was favored by shipowners, merchants and marine insurers. That simple shop was the origin of Lloyd's, the worldwide insurance firm."

BBC NEWS | Health | Prostate cancer cholesterol link

Need another reason to watch cholesterol?

BBC NEWS | Health | Prostate cancer cholesterol link:

"Scientists have produced evidence linking high cholesterol levels to a raised risk of prostate cancer."

Doctor Wants To Test Treating Heart Patients With Chocolate

Doctor Wants To Test Treating Heart Patients With Chocolate:

"Dr. Roger Corder, William Harvey Research, London UK, is applying for permission to treat 40 patients who have cardiovascular diseases with plain chocolate.

(Dark Chocolate = Plain Chocolate. No milk in it)

Recent studies have shown that flavonoids are good for blood pressure, strokes and heart disease. Flavonoids are found in chocolates. Flavonoids are said to lower one's levels of bad cholesterol. "

of course:

"it depends which dark chocolate you are talking about. He acknowledges that not all dark chocolates are good for you. He believes it will take about a year before it is clear which dark chocolates could be used for his study. He stressed that recent research indicating the benefits of chocolate for health should not been seen as an excuse for an Easter chocolate feast."

Kingsford Fires Up a New Charcoal Briquet: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Kingsford Fires Up a New Charcoal Briquet: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance:

"Kingsford's new Sure Fire briquet features an original shape and grooves that expose more of the briquet's surface area to oxygen. The new design creates a more effective path for air to flow though, enabling the charcoal to burn more efficiently. The Sure Fire briquets minimize the amount of time it takes to reach cooking temperature, ultimately using less energy in the lighting stage, saving it for a longer cooking time."

And you thought that something like a charcoal briquet could not be improved!

BTW interesting historical trivia of Kingsford:

"In the 1920s, Henry Ford learned of a process for turning extra wood from the production of Model T's into charcoal briquets and later built a charcoal plant. E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford's, and Thomas Edison were instrumental in selecting and designing the site of the new charcoal manufacturing plant. By the end of 1924, the plant was producing 55 tons of briquets each day, which were first sold to industry (meat and fish smokehouses mainly) and then to car customers. Ford would sell the briquets in bags, emblazoned with the Ford logo, for 25 cents, along with a $2 grill."

BBC NEWS | Health | Low-cal diet 'long-life benefits'

BBC NEWS | Health | Low-cal diet 'long-life benefits': "Scientists have found tangible signs that a low-calorie diet could reverse signs of ageing in the body.

"A six-month study showed cutting calories lowered insulin levels and core body temperatures."

well, yeah...but the trillion dollar question is do these things lead to a longer life?

Ginger, pepper treat difficult cancers - Yahoo! News

Preliminary but promising:

Ginger, pepper treat difficult cancers - Yahoo! News:

"Dr. Rebecca Liu, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues tested ginger powder dissolved in solution by putting it on ovarian cancer cell cultures.

It killed the ovarian cancer cells in two different ways -- through a self-destruction process called apoptosis and through autophagy in which cells digest themselves, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research."

Soy may prevent breast cancer, study finds - Yahoo! News

Soy may prevent breast cancer, study finds - Yahoo! News: "-

Women who eat lots of soy foods appear to have a lower risk of breast cancer, but the benefits may come from health habits that go along with eating soy and not from supplements, researchers said on Tuesday.

Teams at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Georgetown University in Washington looked at 18 different population-based studies of soy and breast cancer. They found an overall relative reduction of 14 percent in breast cancer risk in Caucasian women who ate soy, they reported in Tuesday's issue of the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute."

BBC NEWS | Health | High meat diet 'can stress baby'

BBC NEWS | Health | High meat diet 'can stress baby':

"High protein, low carbohydrate diets should be avoided during pregnancy as they can lead to more stressed offspring, research suggests.

A UK team followed a group of 86 children born in 1967-8 to mothers who were told to eat a pound of red meat a day to avoid pregnancy complications.

The study found the more meat the mother ate, the higher the levels of stress hormone cortisol in the child."