Category Archives: Diet And Food

PARIS, France (AFP) Health researchers said on Thursday they had found a troubling link between higher consumption of rice and Type 2 diabetes, a disease that in some countries is becoming an epidemic.

Further work is need to probe the apparent association and diets that are notoriously high in sugar and fats should remain on the no-go list, they cautioned.

"What we've found is white rice is likely to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, especially at high consumption levels such as in Asian populations," Qi Sun of the Harvard School of Public Health told AFP.

"But at the same time people should pay close attention to the other things they eat.

"It's very important to address not just a single food but the whole pattern of consumption."

In the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Sun's team said the link emerged from an analysis of four previously published studies, carried out in China, Japan, Australia and the United States.

These studies followed 350,000 people over a timescale from four to 22 years. More than 13,000 people developed Type 2 diabetes.

In the studies carried out in China and Japan, those who ate most rice were 55 per cent likelier to develop the disease than those who ate least. In the United States and Australia, where consumption of rice is far lower, the difference was 12 per cent.

Participants in the two Asian countries ate three or four servings of rice a day on average, compared to just one or two servings a week in the Western countries.

White rice is the dominant form of rice eaten in the world. Machines produce its polished look by hulling and milling, leaving a grain that is predominantly starch.

Read this article:
Study links white rice to diabetes

Ingesting higher levels of cadmium, a metal found in fertilizers, may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, a new study from Sweden suggests.

The results showed that postmenopausal women with a relatively high daily dietary cadmium intake had a 21 percent increased risk of breast cancer.

The major sources of cadmium in the diets of women in the study were foods that are generally healthy whole grains and vegetables. These accounted for about 40 percent of the cadmium consumed.

The reason for the link may be that cadmium can cause the same effects in the body as the female hormone estrogen, the researchers said. Estrogen fuels the development of some breast cancers.

Whole grains and vegetables generally protect against cancer, and people should not avoid these foods because of this study, said study researcher Agneta kesson, associate professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The study showed an association, not a cause-and-effect link, in one population of women, and further work is needed to confirm the findings.

"Though no single observational study can be considered conclusive, this very large, prospective study of [cadmium] exposure and post-menopausal breast cancer makes an important contribution to what is a fairly sparse literature considering this very important topic," said Michael Bloom, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Albany, who was not involved in the study.

"It has been known for some time that cadmium is toxic and, in certain forms, carcinogenic," said study researcher Bettina Julin, of the Karolinska Institute of Environmental Medicine.

In the study, the researchers collected data from more than 55,000 women in Sweden for 12 years. The women kept a daily log of everything they ate. The researchers estimated how much cadmium the women's consumed based on the country's data on the amount of cadmium in foods, and divided the women into three equally-sized groups based on their intake.

Over the course of the study, there were 2,112 breast cancer cases among the women: 677 in the women in the lowest cadmium intake group, and 744 in the women in the highest cadmium intake group. Because women's risk of breast cancer rises with age, the researchers took the women's ages into account when calculated the increased risk seen in the high intake group.

Originally posted here:
Fertilizer May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer

I should have known Christina Applegate would have a cozy living room. It's a "take your shoes off" kind of place in Los Angeles, and Christina, 40, is barefoot on her couch. She's wearing cargo pants and a sweater wrap, with a gold "Sadie" necklace. As for her 14-month-old daughter, Sadie? She's napping upstairs, but Christina is on high alert for the baby monitor.

"I love wake-ups," she says, smiling.

It's a rare break for the star of Up All Night, who likes to spend her downtime with Sadie and fianc Martyn LeNoble. With her dog huddled at her feet, Christina talks about what she thinks now of the breast cancer she battled four years ago and the hopeful future she sees for herself and other women, too.

Is it true that Up All Night pulls from your own life as a mom? Silly things. The birth episode had a lot of things that happened during my birth, having to have a headband and having my competition with myself pushing.

What are your favorite ways to stay fit? Um, I'm not fit anymoreI had a baby! I haven't been working out because of the show. But when I was, I loved running. I'm looking forward to the show filming to be over so that I can get back to my schedule, which was five days a week, working my butt off. I miss moving my body.

_________________________________________________ More From Health.com: Celebrities Who Battled Breast Cancer

The Hottest Ways Hollywood Lives Healthy

25 Shocking Celebrity Weight Changes _________________________________________________

How do you eat healthy? Do you have go-to snacks? I don't really snack so much. I meal it. I know there's the whole "You should eat five times a day," but I say eat when you're hungry. Because [that's when] your body's asking you to eat. I've been trying to keep a macrobiotic diet, but I do go off it when I feel like it during the week. Sometimes it's nice to have something that is enjoyable!

When did you start with the macrobiotic diet? That all started when I found out I had cancer in 2008. I always ate really well anyway, so it wasn't an incredible change in my diet. But there's a certain way in which it's prepared and a certain way that you're eating that's geared toward healing.

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Christina Applegate talks mommyhood, diet and surviving breast cancer

DECATUR, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM - News) and China Agricultural University today launched a research program to confirm that a portion of the corn in cattle rations may be effectively replaced with a mix of corn processing co-products and corn stover the stalks, cobs and leaves left on farmers fields after the harvest.

A growing and increasingly prosperous Chinese population is eating diets higher in animal protein, and driving higher demand for grain in the country. As a leading agricultural processor serving vital needs for food and energy, ADM is keenly interested in helping China ensure food security for its citizens by making better use of the grain the world already grows today, and by finding high-value applications for biomass such as corn stover, said Ismael Roig, ADM vice president and president, Asia-Pacific.

Chinas livestock currently consume about 112 million metric tons of corn per year. Cattle producers may be able to reduce their animals consumption by more than half by using a mix of corn processing co-products and corn stover.

In more than 20 cattle-feeding trials, which ADM has conducted in partnership with three leading U.S. agricultural research universities, researchers have been able to replace more than 60 percent of the grain in ruminants diets with a mixture of stover treated with hydrated lime a common food ingredient and high-protein distillers grains without negatively impacting the animals growth and development.

Because China is the worlds second-largest corn consumer, the implications could be significant both for Chinas dairy farmers who may be able to sharply reduce the cost of feed in their operations and for the countrys food security. Feeding cattle a mix of crop residues and co-products can free up a substantial amount of grain for other uses.

ADM will fund the two-year research program, and ADM researchers will work with Dr. Shengli Li, a world-renowned professor of dairy science at CAU, to conduct a series of feeding trials at CAU as well as cooperative trials with large dairy farms in China.

We at China Agricultural University are pleased to join with ADM to help investigate the potential to reduce dairy farmers cost-per-head, and to preserve valuable grain for higher-value uses, said Dr. Li.

About ADM

For more than a century, the people of Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM - News) have transformed crops into products that serve vital needs. Today, 30,000 ADM employees around the globe convert oilseeds, corn, wheat and cocoa into products for food, animal feed, industrial and energy uses. With more than 265 processing plants, 400 crop procurement facilities, and the worlds premier crop transportation network, ADM helps connect the harvest to the home in more than 160 countries. For more information about ADM and its products, visit http://www.adm.com.

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ADM, China Agricultural University Look to Replace Grain in Cattle Feed with Crop Residues

March 14, 2012

A new report in the journal Human Reproduction showcases a study that links fatty, high-carbohydrate diets to lower sperm counts. A better diet that included high intakes of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and plant oils, were associated with higher sperm concentration, reports BBC News.

The team, led by Prof Jill Attaman from Harvard Medical School in Boston, questioned 99 men about their diet and analyzed sperm samples over the course of four years.

Compared with those eating the least fat, men with the highest fat intake had a 43 percent lower sperm count and 38 percent lower sperm concentration. Men consuming the most omega-3 fatty acids had sperm with a more normal structure than men with the lowest intake.

Prof. Attaman said, the magnitude of the association is quite dramatic and provides further support for the health efforts to limit consumption of saturated fat given their relation with other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease.

However, 71 percent of participants were overweight or obese, which could have had an impact on sperm quality. Furthermore, none of the men had sperm counts or concentrations below the normal levels defined by the World Health Organization of at least 39 million and 15 million per milliliter.

Commenting on the research, British fertility expert Dr. Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield, this is a relatively small study showing an association between dietary intake of saturated fats and semen quality.

Perhaps unsurprisingly there appeared to be a reasonable association between the two, with men who ate the highest levels of saturated fats having the lowest sperm counts and those eating the most omega-3 polyunsaturated fats having the highest.

Importantly, the study does not show that one causes the other and further work needs to be carried out to clarify this. But it does add weight to the argument that having a good healthy diet may benefit male fertility as well as being good general health advice.

See the rest here:
Junk Food Diets Linked To Low Sperm Counts

Published : Saturday, March 17, 2012 00:00 Article Views : 177 Written by : AFP

PARIS: Health researchers said on Thursday that they had found a troubling link between higher consumption of rice and Type 2 diabetes, a disease that is becoming an epidemic in some countries.

Further work is needed to probe the apparent association and diets that are notoriously high in sugar and fats should remain on the no-go list, they cautioned.

What weve found is that white rice is likely to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, especially at high consumption levels such as in Asian populations, Qi Sun of the Harvard School of Public Health told Agence France-Presse.

But at the same time, people should pay close attention to the other things they eat, Sun said.

Its very important to address not just a single food, but the whole pattern of consumption, he added.

In the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Suns team said that the link emerged from an analysis of four previously published studies, carried out in China, Japan, Australia and the United States.

These studies followed 350,000 people over a timescale from four to 22 years. More than 13,000 people developed Type 2 diabetes.

In the studies carried out in China and Japan, those who ate the most rice were 55 percent likelier to develop the disease than those who ate the least.

In the United States and Australia, where consumption of rice is far lower, the difference was 12 percent.

More here:
White rice linked to diabetes

16 March 2012 Last updated at 07:11 ET By Ruth Alexander BBC News

Eating an extra portion of red meat every day will increase your risk of death by 13% annually, according to a new study. It sounds scary - but is it?

Harvard Medical School researchers have concluded that a diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy.

They studied the diets and health of more than 120,000 people over the course of more than 20 years and found that red meat is associated with an increased risk of fatal heart disease and terminal cancer.

Over the study period, an extra portion of unprocessed red meat was associated with an overall 13% increased risk of death annually (and the figure for processed meat was even higher).

But what does this mean?

The easiest way to understand it is to think of how this might affect two friends who live very similar lives, according to David Spiegelhalter, a Cambridge University biostatistician, and the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk.

When he's sitting eating his extra burger, that person is losing half an hour of life

Imagine that the two friends are men aged 40, who are the same weight, do the same amount of exercise and do the same job.

The only difference between them is that one eats an extra portion of red meat every day - an extra 85g, or 3oz.

The rest is here:
What is an 13% increased risk of death?

Ingesting higher levels of cadmium, a metal found in fertilizers, may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, a new study from Sweden suggests.

The results showed that postmenopausal women with a relatively high daily dietary cadmium intake had a 21 percent increased risk of breast cancer.

The major sources of cadmium in the diets of women in the study were foods that are generally healthy whole grains and vegetables. These accounted for about 40 percent of the cadmium consumed.

The reason for the link may be that cadmium can cause the same effects in the body as the female hormone estrogen, the researchers said. Estrogen fuels thedevelopment of some breast cancers.

Whole grains and vegetables generally protect against cancer, and people should not avoid these foods because of this study, said study researcher Agneta kesson, associate professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The study showed an association, not a cause-and-effect link, in one population of women, and further work is needed to confirm the findings.

"Though no single observational study can be considered conclusive, this very large, prospective study of [cadmium] exposure and post-menopausal breast cancer makes an important contribution to what is a fairly sparse literature considering this very important topic," said Michael Bloom, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Albany, who was not involved in the study.

Cause for concern?

"It has been known for some time that cadmium is toxic and, in certain forms, carcinogenic," said study researcher Bettina Julin, of the Karolinska Institute of Environmental Medicine.

In the study, the researchers collected data from more than 55,000 women in Sweden for 12 years. The women kept a daily log of everything they ate. The researchers estimated how much cadmium the women's consumed based on the country's data on the amount of cadmium in foods, and divided the women into three equally-sized groups based on their intake.

See the original post:
Cadmium may boost breast cancer risk, study suggests

Health researchers said on Thursday they had found a troubling link between higher consumption of rice and Type 2 diabetes, a disease that in some countries is becoming an epidemic.

Further work is need to probe the apparent association and diets that are notoriously high in sugar and fats should remain on the no-go list, they cautioned.

"What we've found is white rice is likely to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, especially at high consumption levels such as in Asian populations," Qi Sun of the Harvard School of Public Health told AFP.

"But at the same time people should pay close attention to the other things they eat.

"It's very important to address not just a single food but the whole pattern of consumption."

In the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Sun's team said the link emerged from an analysis of four previously published studies, carried out in China, Japan, Australia and the United States.

These studies followed 350,000 people over a timescale from four to 22 years. More than 13,000 people developed Type 2 diabetes.

In the studies carried out in China and Japan, those who ate most rice were 55 percent likelier to develop the disease than those who ate least. In the United States and Australia, where consumption of rice is far lower, the difference was 12 percent.

Participants in the two Asian countries ate three or four servings of rice a day on average, compared to just one or two servings a week in the Western countries.

White rice is the dominant form of rice eaten in the world. Machines produce its polished look by hulling and milling, leaving a grain that is predominantly starch.

Here is the original post:
White rice link seen with Type 2 diabetes, says study

Study Highlights:

SAN DIEGO, March 15, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Overweight and obese adults who used an electronic diary program on a personal digital assistant did better at staying on diet and physical activity programs, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 Scientific Sessions.

People using the device, which provided tailored dietary and exercise feedback messages, were more successful in adhering to five treatment factors for weight loss:

The SMART (Self-Monitoring and Recording with Technology) study included 210 overweight or obese adults, 84 percent women, 79 percent white, who used a paper diary, a handheld electronic device without feedback, or a handheld device that provided daily messages.

Those using the electronic devices did significantly better than those using a paper diary for attendance, self-monitoring and energy and exercise goals.

At six months, the group that received the daily feedback messages from their device had more than a 5 percent weight loss, but over time adherence declined and weight gain occurred.

At 24 months, weight loss was similar across the three groups, but was slightly better in the group receiving feedback.

"The results suggest that using an electronic diary improves treatment adherence," said Lora E. Burke, Ph.D., study author and professor of nursing and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. "Over time, participants' adherence declined, particularly in the later phase as contact frequency declined and subsequently ended. Adherence in the paper diary group declined more than in the device groups."

Study participants recorded their exercise levels and daily food and beverage intakes. Devices displayed the consumed daily calories and fat grams next to targeted amounts. Users with devices providing feedback received messages on diet once a day and exercise every other day.

Thirty-nine group sessions were offered in the first 18 months, followed by one "maintenance" session in the last six months.

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Overweight, Obese Adults Use Electronic Device to Stick to Diet, Exercise