Dieting
Mediterranean diet in pregnancy may curb allergies
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Women who eat a Mediterranean diet while pregnant could help stave off asthma and allergies in their children, a new study suggests.
The traditional Mediterranean diet is rich in plant-based foods—vegetables, fruits, whole grain breads and cereals, legumes, and nuts—as well as olive oil and fish. Adherents consume low to moderate amounts of dairy products and eggs, lesser amounts of white meat, and infrequently eat red meat.
Some studies have suggested that such eating patterns can lower children’s odds of asthma symptoms and skin and nasal allergies. But it’s unclear whether women can affect their children’s future allergy risks by following a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy.
Lose weight on the carb-packed “big breakfast” diet
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To lose weight and keep it off, eat a big breakfast packed with carbohydrates and protein, then follow a low-carb, low-calorie diet the rest of the day, a small study suggests.
The “big breakfast” diet works, researchers say, because it controls appetite and satisfies cravings for sweets and starches. It’s also healthier than popular low-carb diets because it allows people to eat more fiber- and vitamin-rich fruit, according to Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, of the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela.
She told the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco that she’s successfully used this diet in her patients for more than 15 years.
Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study
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Comprehensive lifestyle changes, including a better diet and more exercise, can lead not only to a better physique but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.
The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.
Eating fish may curb risk of age-related eye disease
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Diets high in omega-3 fatty acids and oily fish appear to lower the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to pooled data from nine “observational” studies that evaluated omega-3 or fish intake in the prevention of AMD.
AMD is the leading cause of severe vision loss among elderly people, the Australian research team notes in the latest issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. New treatments for AMD carry risks and treat only certain forms of the disease. Therefore, preventing AMD by modifying risk factors, like cigarette smoking, “remains an important public health strategy,” they write.
Whole milk is effective and cost-effective as oral contrast agent
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An item commonly found in many homes – whole milk – is just as effective, costs less and is easier on the patient than a diluted (0.1%) barium suspension that is also commonly used as an oral contrast agent in conjunction with CT to examine the gastrointestinal tract, a new study finds.
The study included 215 patients undergoing abdominal and pelvic CT, said Chi Wan Koo, MD, lead author of the study. All patients were given an IV contrast media; 115 were also given whole milk as an oral contrast agent; 100 received a 0.1% barium suspension. Two radiologists reviewed all the images and scored them based on degree of bowel distension and bowel wall visibility. Adequate bowel distension is necessary to optimize resolution of the bowel wall and contents, said Dr. Koo.
The study found that the images taken of patients who were given whole milk were just as useful as the images that were taken of patients given the diluted barium, she said.
McDonald’s cooking oil trans fat-free in U.S., Canada
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McDonald’s Corp has switched to cooking oils free of trans fats in all of its restaurants in the United States and Canada, Chief Executive Jim Skinner said on Thursday.
The restaurants made the switch over the past few months, he said.
By the end of the year, McDonald’s pies and other baked goods will also be free of trans fats, Skinner told the company’s annual meeting.
Malnutrition often missed in hospitalized elderly
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Many doctors and nurses may fail to recognize certain key signs of malnutrition in older hospital patients, according to a study conducted at a hospital in Australia.
Researchers found that of 100 elderly patients at a major Melbourne hospital, 30 percent were malnourished, while 61 percent were at risk of becoming so. However, their doctors and nurses often failed to recognize two major risk factors for malnutrition—recent weight loss and waning appetite.
While 59 patients had recently lost weight, only 19 percent of these cases had been recognized by the hospital staff. Of 57 patients with appetite loss, staff recognized 53 percent of cases.
Many diet supplements may carry heart risk - study
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Three quarters of weight-loss supplements bought online as part of a study contained ingredients that could cause lethal heart rhythm disturbances, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They tested 12 over-the-counter diet supplements and found eight contained at least one ingredient associated with life-threatening heart complications, such as ventricular arrhythmia and cardiac arrest.
While all of the products included a list of the ingredients, none came with a warning about the potential heart rhythm side effects, leaving most people in the dark about the dangers of their diet pills, the researchers said.
Tough job: Volunteers needed for chocolate study
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Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.
The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes, the researchers said on Monday.
“We are looking at a high risk group first,” said Aedin Cassidy, a biochemist at the University of East Anglia, who will lead the study. “We hope there will be an additional benefit from dietary intervention in addition to the women’s drug therapy.”
Poor diet undermines health of northern Afghans
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Lunch at Gada Mohammed’s single-room mud-brick house in Afghanistan’s far north is the same as most other meals: dry bread washed down with tea.
“We make our living collecting and selling this herb,” said Mohammed, a 45-year-old father of four, pointing to a pile of roots on the floor of his smoke-blackened room.
Badakhshan, bordering Tajikistan to the north, is far from the fighting with Taliban insurgents in the south, but is still one of Afghanistan’s poorest provinces. Those that fare worst live in the mountains where they are snowed in for up to six months of the year.
Fish oil has heart-rhythm stabilizing effects: study
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In a prospective clinical study, the consumption of fish oil supplements had the effect of reducing the electrical irritability of the heart in people with heart rhythm disturbances.
“This stabilizing effect may be one way in which fish oil reduces mortality in patients with coronary artery disease,” Dr. Glenn D. Young from Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia told Reuters Health.
“This study supports the more wide spread use of fish oil and/or fish consumption in coronary artery disease patients,” Young said.
Skipping breakfast may mean your baby is a girl
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Women on low-calorie diets or who skip breakfast at the time of conception are more likely to give birth to girls than boys, British scientists said on Wednesday.
New research by the universities of Exeter and Oxford provides the first evidence that a child’s sex is associated with the mother’s diet, and higher energy intake is linked to males.
“This research may help to explain why in developed countries, where many young women choose to have low-calorie diets, the proportion of boys born is falling,” said Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter.
Soy compound linked to lower breast cancer risk
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Women with high blood levels of an estrogen-like compound found in soy seem to have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among more than 24,000 middle-aged and older Japanese women, those with the highest levels of the compound, called genistein, were only one-third as likely as other women to develop breast cancer over 10 years.
Genistein is one of the major isoflavones, plant compounds found in soybeans, chick peas and other legumes that are structurally similar to the hormone estrogen, and are believed to bind to estrogen receptors on body cells.
Milk of magnesia helps skin
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My son has acne. He is 16 and has been under a dermatologist’s care for many years, to no avail. He has recently tried a home remedy: applying milk of magnesia to his face at night before bed. He looks the best he has in four years.
Milk of magnesia is a solution of magnesium hydroxide and is best known for its laxative effect. We don’t know why it might combat acne, but we have heard that it can help clear up seborrheic dermatitis, in which yeast on skin causes redness and flakes, rather like dandruff, but on the forehead, chin, scalp and eyebrows. One reader says, “I have been using milk of magnesia on my face for the past two months, and my face flakes are gone! I pour it in my hand and massage it on my face (forehead, eyebrows, around the eyes, nose, cheeks and chin) while showering, and rinse it off at the end of the shower. End of problem.”
Mom’s fish intake may boost child’s brain power
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Preschoolers whose mothers regularly ate low-mercury fish during pregnancy may have sharper minds than their peers, a study suggests.
Researchers found that among 341 3-year-olds, those whose mothers ate more than two servings of fish per week during pregnancy generally performed better on tests of verbal, visual and motor development.
On the other hand, tests scores were lower among preschoolers whose mothers had relatively high mercury levels in their blood during pregnancy.
