More Strawberries, More Antioxidant Absorption

Short version: the body seems to absorb the nutrients from Strawberries! :)

More Strawberries, More Antioxidant Absorption:

"...strawberries are the fifth most consumed fresh fruit in the United States, and consumption more than doubled in the past decade, according to experts. Strawberry's antioxidants come in the form of both long-established vitamins and newly defined plant chemicals. Berries are particularly well endowed with a series of compounds called anthocyanins--the source of the berries' blue, purple and red pigments....The study showed that the human body is capable of assimilating more anthocyanin pigments as intakes increase."

Part Of The In-group? A Surprising New Strategy Helps Reduce Unhealthy Behaviors

Part Of The In-group? A Surprising New Strategy Helps Reduce Unhealthy Behaviors:

"Authors Jonah Berger (University of Pennsylvania) and Lindsay Rand (Stanford University) found that linking a risky behavior with an 'outgroup' (a group that the targeted audience doesn't want to be confused with) caused participants to reduce unhealthy behaviors..."

All the more reason why movie stars and other celebrities should not smoke!

Breakfast time!

Team Beachbody:

" A study presented at the recent Endocrine Society's annual meeting showed that participants who consumed large breakfasts lost almost five times as much weight as the participants who followed a traditional diet. So what's the big deal about breakfast?.....The study supported the idea that when we wake up in the morning, our bodies want food. You've burned through all the fuel from the previous day, and now your body is ready to burn anything, like muscle, to get a jump-start on the day. And if you skip breakfast, muscle is indeed what your body will burn. Later in the day, your brain is still in starvation mode from breakfast (or lack thereof), so your body will store all the calories you eat as adipose tissue, or fat, to save up for the next day when you try to starve it again. The study also found that serotonin (the chemical responsible for controlling cravings) levels were much higher in the morning, which is why breakfast is the meal so many of us are willing to skip. But if our bodies are left unfed, our serotonin levels drop, and the cravings for sweets begin to rise throughout the day."

I have consistently been impressed with the material over at BeachBody.com. Check it out. A bunch of marketing stuff too, but it has good content too.

Parents Shape Whether Their Children Learn To Eat Fruits And Vegetables

Parents Shape Whether Their Children Learn To Eat Fruits And Vegetables:

"Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler's eating patterns for his or her lifetime....When parents eat more fruits and vegetables, so do their children. When parents eat and give their children high fat snacks or soft drinks, children learn these eating patterns instead.""

Takeaway: what you feed your children helps to form patterns that will last into later life.


So I guess Rodney Atkins had it right all along!

MSG Use Linked To Obesity

MSG Use Linked To Obesity:

"People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity."

Yet another reason to read ingredients and to not eat out as often.

Is Your Drinking Water Giving You Diabetes? - US News and World Report

Is Your Drinking Water Giving You Diabetes? - US News and World Report:

"...scientists have proved that chronic exposure to drinking water contaminated with arsenic can cause cancers of the bladder, lung, kidney, and skin, as well as a collection of other diseases. Now there's a new twist. Research published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association has linked the ancient poison to type 2 diabetes, a disease that has reached pandemic proportions and now accounts for 1 in every 10 American dollars spent on healthcare..."

The Science of Aphrodisiacs - US News and World Report

Given all of the recent talk about watermelon, this is noteworthy.

The Science of Aphrodisiacs - US News and World Report:

"They've been touted to increase sex drive, boost arousal, and put men and women in the 'mood' for hundreds of years. But the skeptical consider aphrodisiacs—foods, drinks, and now cleverly marketed extracts and supplements—to be more mental than physical. A brief look at some of the more notorious of these purported libido enhancers reveals both flimsy claims and some sound science."

The article looks at watermelon, chocolate, oysters, and other foods.

Vitamin B, Folate Supplements Won't Help Heart - US News and World Report

Vitamin B, Folate Supplements Won't Help Heart - US News and World Report:

"'This confirms what a lot of recent studies have found -- no benefit of taking vitamin B supplements to reduce the risk of heart disease, and it raises a few red flags,' said Alice H. Lichtenstein, Gershoff professor of nutrition at Tufts University, Boston.

In the new study, reported in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, physicians at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, enrolled almost 3,100 volunteers. Three-quarters of them took various doses of vitamin B and folic acid (which is chemically a B vitamin), while the others got a placebo, an inactive substance.

The study was ended early, after an average follow-up of 38 months, because 'we could not detect any preventive effect of intervention with folic acid plus vitamin B12 or with vitamin B6 on mortality or major cardiovascular events,' the researchers reported."

Another one bites the dust.

Smoking doubles stroke risk in younger women | Health | Reuters

Smoking doubles stroke risk in younger women | Health | Reuters:

"Younger women who smoke have more than double the risk of stroke compared to nonsmokers, with the heaviest smokers among them having nine times the risk, according to a U.S. study published on Thursday."

Runners' High: Joggers Live Longer - TIME

Runners' High: Joggers Live Longer - TIME: "

"the data showed that exercise was a boon to health. Over the years, compared with the never-exercisers, people who exercised regularly — in addition to running, activities included biking, aerobic dance and swimming — showed improved aerobic capacity, better cardiovascular fitness, increased bone mass, fewer inflammatory markers, less physical disability, better response to vaccinations and even improved thinking, learning and memory. They also lived significantly longer."