The pleasantly light, muscat flavor
of a new grape called Sweet Scarlet gives this unusual fruit a different taste
than most red seedless varieties. What's more, this distinctive grape also
boasts attractive, raspberry-red skin--a brighter color than that of other
mid-season, fresh red grapes.
Ready to harvest in late August,
Sweet Scarlet joins the series of delicious red, green and black seedless
grapes developed by ARS' expert team of treefruit breeders based at Parlier,
Calif.
Sweet Scarlet grapes could start
showing up in supermarkets within three to four years. The Fresno-based
California Table Grape Commission has an exclusive license for distributing the
novel variety to nurseries.
Like most grapes produced
commercially in the United States, Sweet Scarlet is a Vitis vinifera
type. And, though it was developed and tested in California--where most of
the nation's fresh grapes are grown--Sweet Scarlet may also thrive in other
locales where V. vinifera grapes are cultivated.
For more information, contact
David W. Ramming, (559)
596-2790; USDA-ARS San Joaquin Valley
Agricultural Sciences Center, Parlier, CA.
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Parents of kids age two and up can
now check a handy website every six months to help determine if their
children's weight gains or losses are heading in the right direction.
Scientists at the ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of
Medicine, Houston, Texas, developed the easy-to-use, online resource and based
it on growth charts issued by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
In just a few minutes spent at
their computer, parents can easily calculate their child's BMI, or Body Mass
Index, and put it into perspective by viewing the youngster's BMI percentile on
a helpful graph. They can do this by simply enter the child's age, height,
gender and weight at:
http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.html
The BMI result, or score, is
displayed, along with a full-color graph that shows the child's current BMI
percentile, as well as helpful examples of how to interpret these results. With
regular use, the graph allows parents to immediately spot a drift towards a
percentile that may signal an unhealthy pattern of weight gain or loss. Links
to information on how to help kids manage their weight, and a link to the free
download of the Java software necessary to use the site, are also
provided.
For more information, contact
Joan B. Carter, (713) 798-6782; USDA-ARS
Children's Nutrition Research Center
at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
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What's best for babies--breast
milk, cow's milk or soy formulas?
A study that's tracking 380
healthy infants from age one month to six years may help parents make that
choice. ARS-funded scientists at the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center,
Little Rock, Ark., are leading the investigation, which began in 2002.
In particular, the researchers want
to determine whether--as some critics have suggested--soy-based formulas
inadvertently cause any adverse health effects.
Previous investigations, in which
nutrition center scientists and others used laboratory rats as a model, showed
no apparent long-term negative effects from feeding regimens high in soy
protein as compared with regimens high in cow's milk protein. However, they did
note that consuming soy protein changed certain enzymes, an effect that might
alter how the infant or young child's body processes medications. This is one
of the factors that the researchers will monitor in the long-term investigation
(March 2002 Journal of
Nutrition, vol. 132, pp. 559S-565S).
For more information, contact
Thomas M. Badger, (501) 364-2785;
Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center,
Little Rock, AR.
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In surveys of U.S. households, kids
who ate fast food, as compared with kids who didn't, consumed more total
calories, more total and saturated fat, more total carbohydrate, more added
sugars and more sugar-sweetened beverages. In addition, the fast-food fans
drank less milk and ate less fiber, fruit and non-starchy vegetables than their
counterparts.
ARS nutrition scientists at
Beltsville, Md., and their Harvard University co-investigators reported these
findings--which confirm those of earlier studies--in the January 2004 issue of
Pediatrics (vol.
113, pp. 112-118).
The researchers analyzed data from
6,212 children and adolescents, aged 4 to 19, who participated in the 1994-1996
and the 1998 USDA food consumption survey. The scientists looked at records
documenting foods eaten on two nonconsecutive days.
Kids who eat fast foods more often
than fiber-rich fruits and non-starchy vegetables may have a greater risk of
obesity and its related problems, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes,
the scientists note.
For further information, contact
Shanthy A. Bowman, (301) 504-0619;
USDA-ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition
Research Center, Beltsville, MD.
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Here's good news for people who
enjoy eating eggplant: this hefty veggie contains high levels of chlorogenic
acid, one of the most powerful antioxidants produced in plants. Antioxidants
are compounds that may protect the body against oxidative damage caused by
molecules called oxygen free radicals.
In examining a range of
commercially grown eggplant and related species, ARS scientists in Beltsville,
Md., isolated and measured the levels of chlorogenic acid and more than a dozen
other antioxidants that belong to the same chemical group. And, they found two
compounds in this family that hadn't previously been isolated from a green
plant (June 2003, Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 51, pp. 3448-3454; September
2003, Journal of the
American Society for Horticultural Science, vol. 128, pp. 704-710).
Plant breeders can use the findings
to boost the nutritional value of tomorrow's commercially grown eggplant.
For more information, contact
John R. Stommel, (301) 504-5583;
USDA-ARS Vegetable Laboratory,
Beltsville, MD, or Bruce D.
Whitaker, (301) 504-6984; USDA-ARS
Produce Quality and Safety
Laboratory, Beltsville, MD.
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To meet the needs of shoppers
interested in buying leaner cuts of meat, packers may soon rely on DXA, or dual
x-ray absorptiometry. The technology uses x-rays of differing energy levels to
show how much lean meat or fat is in a commercial cut.
After preliminary tests of
earlier-generation DXA instruments, ARS scientists at Beltsville, Md., now
intend to test newer-generation DXA devices, to see if the instruments can
operate at commercial packinghouse speeds.
For more information, contact
Alva Mitchell, (301) 504-8868;
USDA-ARS Growth Biology
Laboratory, Beltsville, MD.
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Oil from tomorrow's soybeans--for
salad dressing, cooking oil or margarine--might have higher levels of
heart-healthy monounsaturated fats than today's soybean oils.
In particular, a line of soybeans
developed for breeders and known by the designation N98-4445A has a higher
amount of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that helps keep soy cooking oils
stable even when used for frying foods at high temperatures.
The soybeans' low level of
polyunsaturated fats helps sidestep problems those fats can cause, such as
off-odors.
What's more, the improved ratio of
monounsaturated to polyunsaturated fats is expected to reduce the need for
hydrogenation, a process that helps stabilize vegetable oils but, at the same
time, creates unwanted trans fats.
ARS scientists in Raleigh, N.C.,
developed the promising new breeding line of soybeans.
For more information, contact
Joseph W. Burton, (919) 515-2734;
USDA-ARS Soybean and Nitrogen
Fixation Research Laboratory, Raleigh, NC.
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A microbe called Fusarium
sporotrichioides might, in a rebuilt form, serve as a tiny factory to
mass-produce lycopene. A healthful carotenoid, lycopene lends the attractive
red color to foods such as tomatoes. Some studies have shown that lycopene
helps prevent certain kinds of cancer in people who frequently eat foods rich
in this carotenoid.
Scientists at the ARS National
Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill., have rebuilt the
microbe so that it doesn't produce toxins but does, thanks to genes inserted by
the researchers, produce lycopene.
The microbe grows well on
inexpensive corn-ethanol by-products such as corn fiber and distiller's dry
grains with solubles.
The researchers have patented the
improved microbe. They are following up their preliminary lab tests with
larger-scale experiments
For more information, contact
Timothy D. Leathers, (309)
681-6377; USDA-ARS National Center for
Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL.
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Meat, nuts and eggs are top sources
of choline, a B vitamin essential for keeping our nervous systems and cell
membranes healthy. People who want to know exactly how much choline is in the
foods they eat can now refer to a comprehensive database of the choline content
of some 400 foods.
ARS scientists at Beltsville, Md.,
and their University of North Carolina colleagues at Chapel Hill, developed
this authoritative new resource in a two-year collaboration. It's now posted on
the World Wide Web at: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/
Users should locate the red
heading, "Food Composition Products"; then, under it, click on
"Choline."
The database provides information
that--for the most part--wasn't previously available. A daily choline intake of
425 milligrams (mgs) is regarded as adequate for women and 550 mgs a day for
men. A large hard-boiled egg would provide 112 mgs of choline--about 25 percent
of a day's suggested intake for women.
For more information, contact
Juliette C. Howe, (301) 504-0643;
USDA-ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition
Research Center, Beltsville, MD.
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Helpful bacteria that live in
poultry intestines may protect the birds from Salmonella, Campylobacter
and other pathogens that might otherwise take hold in the birds' intestinal
tracts and cause foodborne illness in people who eat the poultry
meat.
ARS scientists and their University
of Arkansas colleagues have developed, and are seeking a patent for, several
techniques to find promising bacteria that--in laboratory tests--outcompete
these pathogens. Combinations of these beneficial microbes might be fed to
vulnerable hatchlings that might enable the helpful microbes to attach to
intestinal sites that may otherwise be taken over by unwanted
microorganisms--including those that are harmful to humans.
For more information, contact
Ann M. Donoghue, (479) 575-2413;
USDA-ARS Poultry Production and Product
Safety Research Unit, Fayetteville, AR.
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A new formula from ARS nutrition
researchers pairs the essential mineral chromium--in a natural, stable and
absorbable form--with histidine, an essential amino acid that helps the body
absorb chromium.
The scientists have received a
patent for the formulation. Now, the ARS Office of Technology Transfer is
seeking collaborators to conduct clinical trials of the formula, to determine
the proper dosage.
Chromium helps move sugar from the
bloodstream to muscles and helps maintain normal blood sugar levels. Wheat germ
and calf liver are good sources.
For more information, contact
Richard A. Anderson, (301)
504-8091, ext. 277; USDA-ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition Research
Center, Beltsville, MD.
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How might a foodborne pathogen like
Salmonella survive, grow and--hopefully--be destroyed as it makes its
way from farm to table? A new, online database called ComBase brings together
the latest available information on the response of such microbes to acidity,
temperature and other environmental conditions in food processing plants, for
example.
Scientists at the ARS Eastern
Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor, Pa., and colleagues at the Institute of
Food Research, Norwich, U.K., designed ComBase to enhance exchange of
information among scientists studying predictive microbiology--a growing field
that projects microorganisms' behavior.
Microbiologists in government,
academia and industry have already submitted about 25,000 records of microbial
growth and survival to the database, which was launched in 2003. View it on the
World Wide Web at: http://wyndmoor.arserrc.gov/combase/.
For more information, contact
Mark L. Tamplin, (215)
836-3794; USDA-ARS Eastern Regional
Research Center, Wyndmoor, PA.
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By spring 2006, a delicious new
apricot called Apache may be on sale at a supermarket near you. Right now, some
8,000 young Apache apricot trees are taking root in California's central
valley, where nearly all of the nation's apricots are produced.
The number of trees is impressive
because this new, ARS-developed variety has only been available within the past
two years to treefruit nurseries, researchers and apricot breeders.
An early-season apricot of average
size, Apache ripens about the first week of May. The sweet, fragrant fruit
ships and stores well.
Apache resulted from more than a
decade of fruit breeding and testing by ARS scientists based at Parlier, Calif.
Trees should be suitable for any region where other commercial apricot trees
are already thriving.
For further information, contact
Craig A. Ledbetter (559)
506-2817; USDA-ARS San Joaquin Valley
Agricultural Sciences Center, Parlier, CA.
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