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special
report
 Health
& Wellness - Fit to Eat
Introduction
Starting Out in the Gym
To the Last Drop
Launching a weight-training program
Fitness Centers
A Healthy Self Image
Fit to Eat
The Path to Weight Control Bliss
Could Clinics be an Answer?
The drive towards
improved fitness is linked both to our sense of wellbeing, as
well as to the kind of food we consume
Better
for You
Would you believe
that coffee, a wellknown source of antioxidants, may also be a
richer source of dietary fiber than orange juice, claim
researchers in Spain. “The dietary fiber content in brewed
coffee (.25 percent) is higher than in other common beverages,
such as wine (0.14 percent) or orange juice (0.19 percent),”
state the researchers. Coffee has been
linked to improved cognitive performance and reduced risk of
certain diseases, such as diabetes.
What’s particularly
interesting about this study is that no one had ever concerned
themselves before about whether coffee had any dietary fiber.
Fighting
Cancer with Tea
Teas, both green and
black, have potent anti-cancer effects against a
 wide range of
tumors, says a new study led by the US Department of Agriculture
that adds to an ever-growing understanding of the compounds.
“These findings
suggest that consumers may benefit more by drinking both green
and black teas,” writes
lead author Mendel Friedman from the U.S.D.A.
The health benefits
of tea, ranging from a lower risk of certain cancers, to weight
loss, to protection against Alzheimer's, have been linked to a
chemical called polyphenol, which is present in high quantities
in tea. Green tea contains between 30 and 40 percent of
polyphenols, while black tea contains between 3 and 10 percent.
Fighting
Cancer with Broccoli
When it comes to men’s
health, it is probably helpful to know that broccoli, the bain
of kids, teenagers and fullgrown men, is one of the best
defenses against prostate cancer. And not only broccoli. All the
so-called cruciform vegetables, which include cauliflower,
cabbage, brussel sprouts, turnip greens and mustard greens, have
the same medicinal ability.
A medical study
underwritten by the National Institutes of Health of almost
30,000 males between 55 and 74 revealed that those consuming
regular portions of these vegetables had a reduced likelihood of
incurring prostate cancer.
During the study,
the men were regularly screened for prostate cancer. A
total of 1,338 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer,
including 520 men with aggressive prostate cancer.
The men who reported
frequently eating cruciferous vegetables were 40 percent less
likely to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer during
the study than men who rarely ate those vegetables.
Dislike
of Veggies is in the Genes
Meanwhile, liking
and disliking certain foods could also contribute to childhood
obesity problems. The reason why some people dislike vegetables
such as broccoli and brussel sprouts is due to the genetic
defense mechanism to potentially harmful compounds in the
plants, a result that deepens our understanding of taste. “Taste has a great
impact on food acceptability and choice,” says Mari Sandell,
from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. “A comprehensive
understanding of how food components contribute to taste is
necessary to develop modern tools for both nutritional
counseling and food development.” Such research may
help explain why children and adults like and dislike foods and
could be important for the understanding of eating problems,
such as obesity, with over 22 million children under five being
severely overweight.
“The sense of taste enables us to
detect bitter toxins within foods, and genetically-based
differences in our bitter taste receptors affect how we each
perceive foods containing a particular set of toxins,"
explains lead researcher Paul Breslin.
The researchers
state that they have established that a chemical called a bitter
taste receptor can detect a class of compounds called
glucosinolates, with potentially harmful physiological
reactions, in natural foods.
Glucosinolate-containing
vegetables include watercress, broccoli, bok choy, kale,
kohlrabi, and turnip. Many of these vegetables contain compounds
that have been linked to lower incidences of certain diseases,
most notably cancers, and form an integral part of the ‘five-a-day’
regime. However, studies have
shown that many people are falling short of their fruit and
vegetable quota, perhaps due to dislike of certain
vegetables.
“The findings show
that our taste receptors are capable of detecting toxins in the
natural setting of the fruit and vegetable plant matrix,” says
the study. “The contents of the veggies are a double-edged
sword, depending upon the physiological context of the
individual eating them,” says Breslin.
Expectant
Mothers May be Deficient in Vitamin
A
A proportion of
women who expect twins or their second child within two years
are at a higher risk of vitamin A deficiency, states a new
German study.
Funded by BASF, the
new research examined the presence of vitamin A in the serum,
cord blood and colostrums (breast milk produced during the last
few days of pregnancy and first few days after birth) in23
women.
The researchers
report that only four of the 29 women studied had recommended
vitamin A intakes during breastfeeding.
Kids
Who Drink Fruit Juice Could Become Overweight
Children who drink
more than two glasses of fruit juice per day are more likely to
be overweight or obese, according to new research. Researchers
from Deakin University, in Melbourne, found that Australian
schoolchildren who drank a large glass of fruit juice and fruit
drinks per day were more likely to be overweight or obese than
those who did not. The
researchers took a one-day snap shot of the eating habits of
2184 children aged four to 12 years from eight kindergartens and
18 primary schools.
The aim of the study
was to examine the pattern of intake of fast foods, packaged
snacks, fruit, vegetables and sweetened drinks by Australian
children and to establish whether there was a link to weight
gain.
The researchers
found the more fruit juice children consumed, the more likely
they were to be overweight. “Children who drank more than
three glasses of soft drink or four glasses of fruit juice were
more than twice as likely to be overweight or obese compared
with children who did not drink these drinks,” says Dr. Anne
Sanigorski.
She noted that some
parents mistakenly think that giving their child fruit juice is
a healthy alternative to soft drinks. “Parents may not be
aware that regular and large amounts of fruit drinks, fruit
juices and fruit cordials can also be bad for children's
longterm health," she says. “These drinks contribute high
amounts of energy to kids’ diets,
yet they don’t make them feel full.”
The
Bandwagon Brigade
U.S. snack giant
Frito-Lay has become the most recent food producer to create
healthier products by introducing fruit and vegetable based
chips.
Each one ounce
serving of the new chips contains half a serving of fruit or
vegetables and the range comes in six flavors: Farmland Cheddar,
Garlic & Herb Field, Tangy Tomato Ranch, Wild Berry Patch,
Apple Cinnamon Grove and Peach Mango Paradise.
Worries over obesity
and poor diet have contributed to a recent dip in potato chip
sales as consumers avoid the traditionally high-fat, high-salt
product.
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