Elderly men and women who took vitamin D supplements fell down 22 percent
less than those who didn't take supplements of this nutrient. That's according
to a retrospective analysis of five major vitamin D studies encompassing some
1,200 seniors who were in stable health and were, on average, age 70. Vitamin D
is thought to improve our muscles.
Falls are the largest single cause of injury-related deaths among the
elderly. An estimated one-third of people over age 65--and up to half of those
over age 80--are injured in falls each year.
ARS-funded scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center
on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass., and their colleagues reported
these findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(volume 291, pages 1999-2006).
For more information, contact
Bess Dawson-Hughes, (617)
556-3064;
ARS
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University, Boston, MA.
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Whole-grain rice
bread, warm and fragrant from your home bread making machine, may become a
reality within the next year or so. That's thanks to a mix now being fine-tuned
at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, La.
The experimental formulation yields a nutritious loaf with a pleasing
texture that's much like that of conventional whole-wheat breads.
The bread could offer a safe, healthful option for the approximately two
million Americans who cant eat breads made from wheat, rye or barley
because of a condition known as celiac disease. Among them: members of the
Louisiana Celiac Sprue Association who, in fact, have taste-tested the
whole-grain rice bread and say its superior to some rice breads currently
on the market.
A 2001 article in the Journal of Food Science has background
information (volume 66, pages 940-944). Researchers expect the mix to be
commercially available in about a year.
For more information, contact Ranjit Kadan, (504) 286-4332, ext.
332; USDA
ARS
Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, LA.
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Stressed out?
Eating vegetables on a regular basis for two weeks helped volunteers in a
nutrition study reduce levels of stress-related molecules and boost their blood
levels of vitamin C (Journal of Nutrition, volume 134, pages 3021-3025).
Twelve healthy men and women participated in this collaborative study, which
was funded in part by ARS. In addition to other foods, each volunteer ate two
daily servings of gazpacho--a chilled soup made with tomatoes, cucumbers, green
peppers, onions, garlic and olive oil. By the seventh day of the two-week-long
study, volunteers' blood levels of vitamin C had increased by at least 20
percent and remained elevated for the rest of the study.
Levels of four stress molecules decreased significantly. For instance, by
the halfway point in the study, uric acid was reduced by 8 to 18 percent. High
levels of uric acid can cause gout, a form of arthritis, and may increase risk
of cardiovascular disease.
For more information, contact Antonio P. Martin, (617) 556-3141;
ARS
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University, Boston, MA.
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WIC Learning
Online, a course designed especially for registered dietitians and others
who work with clients of the WIC program, is available free of charge at:
www.nal.usda.gov/wicworks/WIC_Learning_Online.
WIC is short for USDAs Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants, and Children. Specialists in the WIC Works Resource System of
the National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Md., developed the user-friendly
course in collaboration with USDAs Food and Nutrition Service and the
University of Maryland, College Park. The library is part of the Agricultural
Research Service.
The course has tips on how to interview WIC clients, suggestions for
presenting nutrition-education classes to WIC recipients, and related
information about nutrition, food safety and top-quality customer service.
The American Dietetic Association has approved the course for four
continuing professional education credits for registered dietitians.
For more information, contact Janice Schneider, (301) 504-6047;
USDA National Agricultural Library,
Beltsville, MD.
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Eating at least three
or more servings of whole-grain foods every day may lessen your chances of
metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that increase risk of Type 2 diabetes
and heart disease. Metabolic syndrome comprises abdominal obesity, high blood
pressure, poor blood-sugar control, low HDL cholesterol and high blood fats
(triglycerides).
Scientists at the ARS Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on
Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass., reported that finding (Diabetes
Care, volume 27, pages 538-546) from their evaluation of food
questionnaires and medical tests from 2,834 healthy men and women volunteers
aged 26 to 82.
Easy ways to get more whole-grain foods into your meals include choosing a
whole- grain cereal at breakfast, whole-grain bread instead of white bread for
your sandwich at lunch or brown rice instead of white at dinner.
For more information, contact Nicola M. McKeown, (617) 556-3367;
ARS
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University, Boston, MA.
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When you
thoroughly cook chicken--whether roasting it to a golden brown or grilling it
with your favorite barbecue sauce--you're also ensuring that the prolonged heat
clobbers any Campylobacter jejuni bacteria. Raw chicken juice, or raw or
undercooked chicken, can harbor this microbe and lead to campylobacteriosis
food poisoning.
Agricultural Research Service scientists in Albany, Calif., and their
colleagues at The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Md., have
discovered more about this microbe. They decoded the sequence, or structure, of
all of the genes in a specially selected C. jejuni strain, and most of
the genes of three other Campylobacter species. Their preliminary
analyses of these species appears in the online journal, PLoS
Biology (volume 3, pages 72-85).
The work may pave the way to faster, more reliable methods for detecting
Campylobacter strains in samples from food, animals, humans and water. And
it opens the door to simpler, less-expensive tactics for distinguishing
look-alike species and strains so that culprit microbes in food-poisoning
outbreaks can be fingered more quickly.
This is the first time the genes of a C. jejuni strain from a farm
animal--in this case, a market chicken--has been sequenced. That source is
important, because chicken is thought to be the leading source of this
bacterium in food--even though it is also present in pigs, cattle and sheep.
For more information, contact Robert E. Mandrell, (510) 559-5829;
USDA-ARS
Western
Regional Research Center, Albany, CA.
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Can a low-sugar watermelon taste as crisp and refreshing as its
conventional, higher-sugar counterparts?
Yes, says an Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist who is
developing delicious, red-fleshed watermelons with about 5 percent sugar
content. Red watermelons we buy at supermarkets can have up to 14 percent.
Though low in sugar, the fruit still provides lycopene, the scientists
showed (HortScience, volume 39, page 654). This pigment gives the melon
its attractive red color and is thought to help reduce risk of heart disease
and certain cancers.
The melon might be ready for seed producers within a few years. Using
artificial sweetener will make the low-sugar watermelon taste fully sweet. That
will be a boon for people who love watermelon but have to cut back on calories,
sugar--or both.
For more information, contact Angela R. Davis, (580) 889-7395, ext.
263; USDA-ARS
South
Central Agricultural Research Laboratory, Lane, OK.
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Carrots that come
in an array of unconventional hues owe their coloration to natural pigments
that have impressive health-promoting properties. ARS scientists at Madison,
Wis., use conventional plant-breeding techniques to develop these and other
specialty carrots.
Attractive, yellow carrots from this research get their color from
xanthophylls, which have been linked to good eye health. Red carrots contain
lycopene, also found in tomatoes and thought to guard against heart disease and
some cancers. Purple carrots anthocyanins are regarded as powerful
antioxidants that help protect our cells from damage.
Nutrition studies conducted in collaboration with the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, showed that the yellow carrots' lutein was 65 percent as
available to the body as it is from lutein supplements (American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, volume 80, pages 131-136). Lycopene from red-pigmented
carrots is 40 percent as bioavailable as it is from tomato paste, giving people
who don't like tomatoes another choice among food sources of lycopene. The
findings might encourage growers to try out the novel carrots.
USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service funded
part of the research.
For more information, contact Philipp
W. Simon, (608) 262-1248; USDA-ARS
Vegetable
Crops Research Unit, Madison, WI.
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Perfectly ripened
pistachios split open naturally so that the tasty, lime-green kernels look as
if they are peeping out at you. A high-speed sorter called the "Pistachio
Blaster is helping ensure that only these premium, open-shell nuts make
their way from orchards to you.
At the pistachio-processing plant, the Blaster quickly sorts low-value,
closed-shell pistachios from their premium, open-shell counterparts--with about
90 percent accuracy.
Working at the respectable rate of about 25 nuts per second, The Pistachio
Blaster analyzes sounds made during and immediately after each nut strikes a
stainless steel block. The sound is picked up by a microphone, then sped to a
computer that--when it detects the telltale bounce of a closed-shell nut--sends
a signal that causes a blast of compressed air to direct the nut to the reject
bin.
Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Calif., holds a license for the patented
Blaster. An article in a back issue of Applied Engineering in Agriculture
(volume 16, pages 91-94) has details about the innovative sorter.
For more information, contact
Thomas C. Pearson, (785)
776-2729; USDA-ARS
Grain
Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS.
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Expert nutrition advice
on eating for your good health is offered in the new Dietary Guidelines for
Americans 2005, now just a mouse-click away on the World Wide Web.
Brief highlights, taken from the full report, are presented in a brochure,
"Finding
Your Way to a Healthier You: Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
" .
An
executive
summary is designed for nutritionists, dietitians and other healthcare
professionals.
The full report is posted at
www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document.
The Guidelines provide practical, science-based recommendations about
how to eat and exercise to prevent obesity and lower your risk of cancer,
diabetes and other chronic diseases.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services update the Guidelines every five years.
Back to Contents
Curious about fluoride?
A new, online database from ARS' Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research
Center indicates the amount of this nutrient in some 400 foods and beverages.
The USDA
National Fluoride Database of Selected Beverages and Foods-2004 should
be particularly useful to nutrition researchers who are evaluating the question
of how much fluoride we need for good health.
Fluoride is added to many U.S. municipal water supplies--to help prevent
tooth decay--and may end up in some water-based beverages and foods.
The database resulted from an interagency agreement between ARS and the
Bethesda, Md.-based National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and
the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, both part of the National
Institutes of Health.
The new compilation is based on scientific literature and analyses by
scientists at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, Iowa City.
For more information, contact
Rena Cutrufelli, (301)
504-0693; USDA-ARS
Beltsville
Human Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, Md.
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Dairy-goat milk is
high in protein, low in cholesterol, and is a nutritious option for people
whose digestive systems react badly to cow's milk. Cheese made from goat milk
is a flavorful addition to foods such as a fresh spinach salad.
In the United States, about one million goats are raised for producing milk
and cheese. Goat milk sold in this country may soon be analyzed with a test
that detects antibodies made by goats in response to Brucella
melitensis, the microbe that causes brucellosis.
The test resulted from a collaboration between ARS, USDA's Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service and Iowa State University. It's an adaptation of an
enzyme-linked immunoassay, or ELISA, from ARS for detecting another
Brucella species.
B. melitensis can induce abortions in animals, and can cause headache
and fever in humans. Few cases of this infection in goats have occurred in the
United States since 1972, but dairy-goat milk's gradual gain in popularity may
lead to use of the new assay for testing goats, their milk, or both.
For more information, contact Louisa B.
Tabatabai, (515) 294-6284; USDA-ARS
National
Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA.
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