Corn puffs, cheese curls, crispy breakfast cereals and other crunchy
"puffed" foods may soon offer up to seven times more protein. That's
if they're made with protein-rich whey, left over after cheesemaking. ARS food
technologists in Wyndmoor, Pa., developed and are seeking a patent for their
novel technique for this use of whey protein.
The new process uses a standard industrial
food-processing device called a twin-screw extruder. The scientists developed
moisture and temperature specifications for the processor so that adding whey
won't interfere with the taste, color or crunchiness of food products.
For more information, contact
Charles I. Onwulata, (215)
233-6497; USDA-ARS Eastern Regional
Research Center, Wyndmoor, PA.
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Consuming high levels of hydrogenated fat--found in
products like stick margarines--may contribute to higher levels of small,
unhealthy particles of low-density lipoproteins, or LDL, in the blood.
Hydrogenation converts liquid oils into solid fats.
People with a higher proportion of these LDL
particles in their blood, in relation to larger-sized particles, have a
significantly increased risk of heart disease--even if their total LDL level is
relatively normal.
Scientists at the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Boston, Mass., and their co-investigators
detected the association between hydrogenation and higher levels of the
smaller-sized LDL particles. They determined that in a test with 18 men and 18
women, aged 52 to 73. The volunteers followed five, 35-day experimental
regimens that included spreads with different degrees of
hydrogenation--semiliquid margarine, soft margarine, shortening, stick
margarine or butter. The findings appeared in the September 2003 American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 78, pp. 370-375).
For further information, contact
Alice H. Lichtenstein, (617)
556-3127; ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston,
MA.
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A very small quantity of ground
cinnamon--less than a half-teaspoon a day--helped volunteers with type II
diabetes mellitus reduce their levels of blood sugar-and reduce several
cardiovascular disease risk factors, as well. That's according to a preliminary
study of a small group of volunteers--60 men and women, all of whom had been
diagnosed several years earlier with type II diabetes. ARS scientists at
Beltsville, Md., and their university colleagues in Peshawar, Pakistan,
conducted the 60-day study and reported their findings in the December 2003
issue of Diabetes Care (vol. 26, pp. 3215-3218).
An estimated 17 million Americans have type
II diabetes, in which insulin, the hormone that regulates their cells' use of
sugar, is insufficient in quantity or incorrectly recognized by the body. The
disorder causes unhealthy levels of sugar to build up in their blood.
Volunteers, aged 40 to 65, ate one of three
different quantities of cinnamon for 40 days of the study. Or they took
cinnamon-free capsules that mimicked the size and number of the cinnamon
capsules.
Participants who received any of the three
quantities of cinnamon lowered their blood sugar levels by 18 to 29 percent.
They also lowered their levels of triglycerides (23 to 30 percent), total
cholesterol (12 to 26 percent) and LDL cholesterol (7 to 27 percent). That's
important, because high levels of those biochemicals are risk factors in heart
disease. Individuals with type II diabetes are two to four times more likely to
develop cardiovascular disease than people without diabetes.
The researchers found no advantage in eating
more than the smallest dose. They point out the study is preliminary and is
based on findings from a relatively small group of volunteers.
For more information, contact
Richard A. Anderson, (301)
504-8091; USDA-ARS Beltsville Human
Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, MD.
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Three new, high-tech devices should make it easier,
faster and less expensive to determine how many calories your body burns.
Scientists at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Davis, Calif.,
are assessing the accuracy of the inexpensive, simple-to-use instruments.
They're also determining the best combination of the devices for use in
research and for physicians and other healthcare professions to use in helping
patients maintain a healthy weight. Today, severe overweight, or obesity, is
America's No. 1 nutrition problem.
Two of the instruments are lightweight,
pocket-size "activity monitors" for calculating the number of
calories burned through physical activity. Worn attached to a belt or
waistband, the monitors use motion-sensor technology to record the wearer's
movements. The third instrument, a convenient, hand-held device, may replace
today's bulky apparatus used to gauge "resting metabolic rate," or
RMR--the number of calories an individual burns while sitting quietly. Resting
metabolic rate and physical activity together account for about 90 percent of
the calories that people burn everday.
For further information, contact
Mary J. Kretsch, (530) 752-4171;
USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research
Center, Davis, CA.
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A nutrition problem called "failure to
thrive" or "FTT," usually apparent in the first three years of
life, can affect brainpower of pre-teens and teens. An ARS-funded study at the
Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, Little Rock, provides new details about
the difference in brain function between 27 youngsters aged eight to 15 who had
been diagnosed with FTT early in life, and 17 peers who had not.
FTT volunteers had significantly lower scores
in standard reading, spelling and math tests than youngsters whose childhood
development was normal.
In another standard test that requires
repeated, careful decision-making, the FTT kids' brain waves were different
from those of young people with normal development.
The study is part of research to delineate
the relation between nutrition and brain function and, ultimately, to alleviate
FTT and its consequences.
More than 200,000 infants born each year in
the United States have FTT, meaning that they have an abnormally low weight for
their age or have an abnormally low weight gain over time. Previous research by
the Arkansas scientists has shown that FTT kids who eat as much, or more than,
their counterparts can't make full use of those foods to grow as expected.
For more information, contact
Terry Pivik, (501) 364-3342; USDA-ARS
Arkansas Children's Nutrition
Center, Little Rock, AR.
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Kids' attitudes about their athletic
abilities may influence whether they regularly exercise later in life--and may
also influence their future risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
A study of 900 middle-school children and
their changing attitudes about their own athletic abilities may reveal more.
Youngsters of that age group were singled out for the study because the biggest
drop in children's physical activities tends to occur as they move from middle
school to high school.
The investigators are tracking seventh
graders into eighth and ninth grades, and eighth graders into ninth and tenth
grades, to learn about their physical activity schedules and their attitudes
towards themselves as individuals who are athletic or who exercise to keep
fit.
ARS-funded scientists at the Children's
Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas, are leading the four-year
investigation, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
For further information, contact
Cheryl B. Anderson, (713) 798-0773;
USDA-ARS Children's Nutrition Research
Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
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Soy flour-based breads that taste as good as today's
familiar wheat-flour breads have been developed by an ARS
"chemist-turned-baker."
Taste testers evaluated the unique,
high-protein breads made with ARS' new dough formulations.
The novel breads are high in fiber and other
healthful compounds such as isoflavones. In particular, loaves containing 30 to
40 percent soy flour provide 112 to 127 grams of protein, compared to 65 grams
of protein found in typical wheat-flour breads. The pleasing, slightly dense
texture of the soybreads is comparable to that of premium, multigrain breads
and other specialty or artisan loaves.
The scientists overcame soy's
"beany" aftertaste--a problem with yesterday's soy-flour breads--by
novel combinations of yeast, sugar and ascorbic acid.
They described their research in the August
2003 Journal of Food Science (vol. 68, pp. 2141-2145).
For more information, contact
Randal L. Shogren, (309)
681-6354; USDA-ARS National Center for
Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL.
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A sweet, juicy new peach called "Gulfprince"
may begin showing up in the produce section of some markets this coming summer.
Developed by ARS scientists in Byron, Ga., and their university colleagues,
this peach can tree-ripen for three to four days longer than most other kinds
of peaches, giving it more time to become sweeter, juicier and more
aromatic.
Gulfprince, best suited for growing in the
Atlantic and Gulf states of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Texas, was planted in commercial orchards beginning in 2001. In Georgia,
Gulfprince typically ripens in early June.
The trees bear plump, yellow-fleshed fruits
that are about two-and-one-half inches in diameter. These peaches are slow to
soften and don't bruise easily, so they hold up well on the trip from growers'
orchards to your home.
For further information, contact
Thomas Beckman, (478) 956-6436;
USDA-ARS Fruit and Tree Nut
Research Laboratory, Byron, GA.
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Thinly sliced Ivory Crisp potatoes make
delicious, golden-brown potato chips. Developed by university and ARS
scientists in the Northwest Potato Variety Development Program, this potato's
favorable ratio of starch to sugar prevents the unattractive dark spots and
burnt flavor that can occur when frying potatoes that have a higher amount of
sugar.
Ivory Crisp keeps that ratio, even in the
prolonged cold storage that many "chipping" potatoes undergo.
After tests in Idaho, Oregon and Washington,
scientists determined that Ivory Crisp was ready to offer to growers (May-June
2003 American Journal of Potato Research, vol. 80, pp. 207-213).
For more information, contact
Richard G. Novy, (208) 397-4181, ext.
111; USDA-ARS Small
Grains and Potato Research Unit, Aberdeen, ID.
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Tomorrow's sweet corn could offer more vitamin E than before, as a
result of research by ARS scientists and their collaborators. That's good news
for people who like fresh or frozen corn-on-the-cob, canned creamed corn or
other sweet corn products.
Right now, 25 percent of Americans don't get
enough vitamin E. Research has shown that this essential nutrient, found in
green vegetables, nuts and vegetable oil, is especially important for a healthy
pregnancy. And, it can decrease the risk of heart disease.
ARS scientists in St. Louis, Mo., and their
colleagues borrowed genes from rice, barley and wheat--which contain higher
levels of vitamin E than corn--to develop the new corn (September 2003,
Nature Biotechnology, vol. 21, pp. 1082-1087).
The scientists investigated a little-studied
pathway that plants use to make a form of vitamin E known as a tocotrienol.
They isolated a gene that is critical in this biochemical pathway, then moved
that gene into experimental corn plants. The result? A sixfold increase in
kernels' vitamin E content.
Similar studies with soybeans are under
way.
For further information, contact
Edgar B. Cahoon, (314)
587-1291; USDA-ARS
Plant Genetics
Research Unit, St. Louis, MO.
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HarvestPlus--a new program designed to overcome
micronutrient malnutrition in developing nations--will employ discoveries from
ARS research to boost the nutritional value of such crops as rice, corn, wheat,
beans, sweet potato and cassava.
ARS studies of the genes that control plants'
levels of micronutrients such as iron, zinc and beta-carotene will have a key
role in HarvestPlus. Scientists at the ARS Children's Human Nutrition Research
Center, Houston, Texas, and at the ARS U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition
Laboratory, Ithaca, N.Y., are leading this work.
The micronutrients in these new, naturally
enhanced plants need to be readily available for the body to digest and absorb.
ARS experts at Ithaca will scrutinize bioavailability, using
laboratory-cultured human intestinal cells to simulate the way we digest and
absorb nutrients. Colleagues at Cornell University will further investigate the
enriched plants in tests with pigs. Scientists at the ARS Grand Forks (N.D.)
Human Nutrition Research Center will confirm these laboratory findings, in
follow-up studies with volunteers.
Enriching plant-derived foods by improving
the nutrient composition of the plant itself is known as biofortification.
That's in contrast to fortifying foods--after harvest--at the processing
plant.
For more information, contact
Ross M. Welch, (607) 255-5434; USDA-ARS
U.S. Plant, Soil and
Nutrition Laboratory, Ithaca, NY.
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