Raisins called Selma Pete and Diamond Muscat
offer a taste treat for consumers andin the case of Selma Petea
labor-saving option for growers. The raisin grapes resulted from a decade of
research by ARS' renowned grape-breeding team at the San Joaquin Valley
Agricultural Sciences Center, Parlier, Calif.
Selma Pete grapes will dry on the vine after
the canes that bear the fruit have been cut to stop the flow of water to grape
clusters. Dry-on-the-vine grapes can be mechanically harvested, thus lowering
labor costs.
Selma Pete and Diamond Muscat are ready to harvest
earlier than some other grape varieties, meaning that they are unlikely to be
caught inand damaged byrainstorms early in the fall.
Selma Pete vines produce impressive
quantities of seedless grapes that dry to form sweet, juicy raisins. Diamond
Muscat is also a seedless grape. That's a major advantage over the well-known
Muscat of Alexandria, which has to be mechanically deseeded, resulting in
sticky, damaged raisins. The rich flavor of Diamond Muscat makes it ideal for
confections such as chocolate-covered raisins or for dessert wines.
Selma Pete and Diamond Muscat, first made
available to growers and nurseries in 2001 and 2000, respectively, are
descendants of parent vines developed in the early 1900s by USDA scientists in
California and are the newest of the raisin grapes from the California
laboratory.
For more information, contact
David W. Ramming, (559)
596-2790, USDA-ARS San Joaquin Valley
Agricultural Sciences Center, Parlier, CA.
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Dark-orange carrots may deliver more
beta-carotene to your system than their lighter orange counterparts.
Beta-carotene imparts the attractive orange color to carrots and acts as an
antioxidanta type of compound thought to reduce risk of cardiovascular
disease and certain kinds of cancer. Too, our bodies convert beta-carotene into
vitamin A, a nutrient essential for good vision and proper growth of bones and
teeth.
Preliminary results of a study by an ARS carrot breeder in Madison,
Wis., and scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, indicate that
volunteers had higher levels of this phytonutrient in their blood during the
time they breakfasted on muffins made from higher-carotene carrots than when
they ate muffins baked with the lower-carotene ones.
The volunteers for this 11-day study were
healthy men and women in their 20s. Beta-carotene content of their meals was
controlled, in order to help isolate the effect of the carrot-derived
beta-carotene.
Researchers next want to determine whether
the greater intake of beta-carotene translates to a higher level of vitamin A;
the body converts beta-carotene into the vitamin.
ARS' carrot-breeding research has
significantly boosted the beta-carotene content of commercially grown carrots.
For further information, contact
Philipp W. Simon, (608) 262-1248,
USDA-ARS Vegetable Crops Research
Unit, Madison, WI.
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A new method now being developed to detect
folate in people and the foods they eat may help ensure that Americans are
getting enough of this essential B vitamin. The nutrient is of special concern
for mothers-to-be because low folate levels have been linked to increased risk
of birth defects.
Folate
helps the body form genetic material, or DNA. It is important to blood-cell
makeup and reduces the risk of heart disease by thwarting the buildup of excess
levels of an amino acid, homocysteine.
The detection technique that researchers at
the ARS Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center are refining employs
two well-known procedureshigh-performance liquid chromatography, or HPLC,
and fluorescence. This approach should enable the user to detect levels of the
various forms of folate, including folic acida synthetic folate used in
many food products.
The procedure should be as useful asbut
less expensive thanthe HPLC plus mass spectroscopy procedure, or HPLC-MS,
that the Beltsville team developed earlier (2001, Analytical Biochemistry, vol.
298, no. 2, pp. 299-305).
For more information, contact
Robert J. Pawlosky, (301) 504-8071,
USDA-ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition
Research Center, Beltsville, MD.
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Weight lifting or similar exercise might help
people with type 2 diabetes decrease their need for medication to control this
disease. A recent study from the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research
Center on Aging shows this for the first time.
The 16-week study, described in the December
2002 issue of Diabetes Care (vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 2335-2341) involved 60
Hispanic men and women over age 55 who had an average nine-year history of type
2 diabetes. All volunteers had to pass a physical exam and take an
electrocardiogram before being admitted to the study.
Scientists focused on Hispanic Americans for
this research because their incidence of diabetes is about twice that of
non-Hispanic whites. Half of the volunteers did resistance training, such as
weight lifting, three times a week for the entire study; the other study
participants did not. The researchers found that 22 out of 31 exercisers were
able to reduce their requirement for diabetes medication. Only 1 of the 31
non-exercisers was able to do that during the same time period.
Further work is needed to determine the
optimum intensity of an exercise program in which older adults with type 2
diabetes could safely achieve maximum results.
For more information, contact
Carmen Castaneda Sceppa, (617)
556-3081, ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston,
MA.
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Pear bars, a new, all-fruit, all-natural treat from
ARS scientists and pear growers in the Pacific Northwest, stay soft and chewy
without the need for artificial preservatives. The delicious treats are about
the size of a typical granola bar but a bit slimmer.
HR Mtn. Sun, Inc., of Hood River, Ore., is
working with ARS scientists to further test the shelf life of the bars, and
plans to produce them using the procedures that the ARS researchers patented.
The company intends to market an all-pear bar that has bits of dried pears in
it, as well as a pear-blueberry and a pear-cranberry bar.
Each pear bar contains about the same amount
of nutrientsincluding vitamin C, iron, and potassiumas two fresh
pears.
For more information, contact
Tara H. McHugh, (510) 559-5864, USDA-ARS
Western Regional Research Center, Albany,
CA.
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Whether made at home or at a restaurant,
traditional Hispanic dishes usually don't taste authentic if made with
American-style cheese. So ARS scientists at the Eastern Regional Research
Center, Wyndmoor, Pa., are now helping U.S. cheesemakers meet the nation's
growing demand for Hispanic cheese and to extend the shelf life of these tasty
products.
The researchers are scrutinizing the physical
and chemical properties of the cheeses, relying not only on laboratory
instruments, but also on the evaluations of a panel of taste testers. The goal:
replicate, in new, pasteurized, Hispanic-style cheeses, the full flavors,
varied textures, and cooking qualities of cheeses made outside of the United
States.
The scientists are focusing on four Mexican
cheeses: Queso Blanco, Panela, Asadero, and Mennonite-style cheese.
For more information, contact
Diane Van Hekken, (215) 836-3777,
USDA-ARS Eastern Regional Research
Center, Wyndmoor, PA.
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New research with blueberries provides
additional evidence that the fruit-when fed to laboratory
rats-boosts brain power. Lab rats fed blueberry supplements equal to one
cup daily in humans had an increased "birth rate" of brain cells in
the region responsible for memorythe hippocampusas compared to rats
not fed the blueberry supplements.
What's more, blueberry-supplemented rats did better in
tests of their memory than did their counterparts. The research was conducted
at the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Boston,
Mass.
Follow-up studies will investigate how
natural compounds in blueberries interact with molecules needed for creating
new cells in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain.
For more information, contact
James A. Joseph, (617) 556-3178,
ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition
Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA.
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About 33 percent of Americans aged 65 and
older have no teeth. But a new study suggests that seniors may minimize tooth
loss if they get their daily recommended dietary allowance of calcium (1,000 to
1,200 milligrams) and vitamin D (400 to 600 international units).
Scientists at the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Boston, Mass., worked with colleagues at
the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and Boston University in this research.
Volunteers for the study145 healthy men and women over age
65received either placebos or 500 milligrams of calcium and 700
international units of vitamin D as supplements for the first three years of
the study.
During the subsequent two years, volunteers
didn't take the supplements. Only 13 percent of the volunteers who had taken
the supplements lost one or more teeth during the first two years of the study
as compared to 27 percent of the placebo group volunteers.
Though follow-up investigations are needed to
confirm these results, this preliminary study strongly suggests that nutrition
education for seniors can improve their dental health.
For more information, contact
Elizabeth A. Krall, (617) 638-6216, ARS
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research
Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA.
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The first U.S.-approved infant formula to
offer both DHA and ARAtwo healthful, natural fatty acidswas made
possible in part from ARS discoveries.
ARS researchers at the Southern Regional
Research Center, New Orleans, La., helped scientists at Martek Biosciences
Corp., Columbia, Md., overcome obstacles to gleaning DHA and ARA from oils in
algae and fungi. They were helped by an ARS-developed technique for separating
out, and purifying, oil from cotton seeds.
The result? Enfamil Lipil baby formula from
Mead Johnson Nutritionals, introduced in the United States in 2002, includes
Martek's proprietary blend of DHAshort for docosahexaenoic acidand
ARA, or arachidonic acid. Before then, formulas approved for sale in the United
States lacked DHA because the typical source of this nutrientoil from
coldwater fishquickly becomes rancid and can impart an unwanted fishy
flavor.
A study, conducted elsewhere with funding
from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, showed that
babies fed formula supplemented with DHA and ARA performed better in mental and
visual acuity tests than did babies fed formula without these nutrients
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 2000, vol. 42, pp.
174-181.
For more information, contact
Peter J. Wan, (504) 286-4450,
USDA-ARS Southern Regional
Research Center, New Orleans, LA.
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Think candy bars don't grow on trees? The
beans that yield chocolate, cocoa, and cocoa butter do. Now, nine superior
Theobroma cacao trees have been selected by ARS scientists as top
performers, after 10 years of testing.
Material from the trees, suitable for
grafting to rootstocks such as the commonly grown EET-400, are now being made
available to researchers and growers by the staff of the ARS Tropical
Agriculture Research Station, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where the cacao work was
done. Scientists developed the promising new trees by hand-grafting scionwood
onto EET-400 rootstock, an approach they say is better than relying on hybrid
seed.
The new selections, as they are known to
horticulturists, produce higher yields than parent trees. That's important,
because an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the world's cacao crop is lost each
year to insect pests and fungal diseases. These natural enemies can include
black pod, witches' broom, frosty pod rot, and the cocoa pod borer.
For more information, contact
Ricardo J. Goenaga, (787) 831-3435,
USDA-ARS
Tropical
Agriculture Research Station, Mayaguez, PR.
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Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, fortified
with a moderate amount of calcium, can significantly boost kids' calcium
intake. That's according to a study with 27 children aged six to nine.
Importantly, the extra calcium didn't
interfere with the youngsters' ability to absorb another essential nutrient,
iron. Sometimes increasing the amount of one nutrient can interfere with
absorption of another.
Adequate intake of calcium during childhood
and adolescence is thought to help prevent onset of osteoporosisa disease
characterized by brittle boneslater in life.
Scientists with the ARS Children's Nutrition
Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, conducted the
study. Kids participating in the research ate either nonfortified cereal
containing only 39 milligrams of calcium per ounce or fortified cereal that
provided 156 milligrams of calcium per ounce. All of the children ate cereal at
breakfast, with milk, and as an afternoon snack, without milk.
The scientists reported the findings in the
Journal of Pediatrics, 2001 (vol. 139, pp. 522-526).
For more information, contact
Steven A. Abrams, (713) 798-7164,
USDA-ARS Children's Nutrition Research
Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
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There's a new
shortcut to healthy eating, thanks to research by scientists at the ARS
Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center, and colleagues at
HealtheTech, Inc., of Golden, Colo. Anyone who has a handheld PDA (personal
digital assistant) that runs the Palm Operating System can now download the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database for Standard
Reference, Release 15.
The database is the nation's leading source
of information about the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in more than
6,000 food items. Users can select a food group from the database, choose a
specific food within that group, then learn about the nutrient content of their
selection.
PDA access to the database makes it a handy
reference at home, in the office, at a restaurant, or at the supermarket, for
example.
The free-of-charge download is available on
the World Wide Web at:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp
The research collaboration yielded the
software package that makes the download quickabout 30 secondsand
the database searchable from a hand-held PDA.
For more information, contact
Rena Cutrufelli, (301)
504-0693, USDA-ARS Beltsville Human
Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, MD.
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