Archive for the ‘Nutritional Information’ Category

Ginger Can Help Soothe Chemotherapy Side Effects

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

A combination of Chinese herbs in use for more than 1,800 years reduced the gastrointestinal side effects of chemotherapy in mice, while actually enhancing the effects of the cancer treatment, a new study has found. It appeared in the latest issue of “Science Translational Medicine.”

Peonies and a purple flower called “skullcap,” together with licorice and fruit from a buckthorn tree, make up the Huang Qin Tang concotion. This is a herbal medicine used in China to treat intestinal disorders such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Recently, a preliminary study found that this herb reduces stomach damage caused by chemotherapy in colon and rectal cancer patients.

Researchers from Yale University used a form of Huang Qin Tang (called “PHY906″) to find that its healing properties stem from an ability to target many biological processes. The subjects were mice, where all groundbreaking findings begin.

Everyone knows that chemotherapy can cause a host of very unpleasant and lifestyle-altering side effects. Identifying ways to relieve these effects will not only improve quality of life, but also help a patient continue with a stretch of therapy that might eradicate the cancer.

In the new study, researchers treated cancerous mice with chemotherapy, which shrank tumors but also caused massive destruction in the intestines. After a few days with PHY906, the medicine restored the damaged intestinal linings. Stem cell signaling molecules were in higher than normal levels in the mice’s guts. It seems the herbal remedy mixed with an enzyme in the gut to replace damaged intestinal stem cells with healthy ones — and blocked inflammation in the gut.

This all came, importantly, without affecting chemotherapy’s ability to kill cancer cells. This amazing ability might represent a new path for dealing with the physical costs of treating cancer.

While we’re on the subject, it’s good to know of another Chinese herb that could help here as well. Ginger has been found effective in reducing or even eliminating nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy. While the evidence is mixed, some have found that taking ginger every day does have a significant effect. Even adding ginger to the mix when taking anti-nausea medications can add further benefit.

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Rooibos Tea, Sweet Cherry Juice Found to Help Fight Cancer

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Food is natural — it has evolved along with us and is specially adapted for use by our digestive systems and our organs. Some foods are healthier than others, while some are not healthy at all. Unfortunately, there are a lot of the latter available in our culture right now. You must make a conscious decision to reach for the healthy stuff. But you will be infinitely rewarded if you do. Healthy foods taste great, boost your immune system, fight disease, slow aging, improve your mood, and give you energy. There isn’t a single excuse for not eating nutritious, whole food.

Now take a look at an interesting study recently conducted at the Institute of Toxicology in Germany. For the study, researchers wanted to look at the effects certain foods had on something called “heterocyclic aromatic amines”, or HAAs. HAAs are often formed when you cook meat and fish at high temperatures. These substances are associated with an increased risk for cancer.

Going on the premise that diets rich in fruits and vegetables could protect against cancer, the research team studied three teas, two wines, and the juices of 15 fruits and 11 vegetables to gauge their protective effect against the toxic effects of HAAs. Here’s what they found:

–Black, green and rooibos tea moderately reduced the toxicity of HAAs, whereas red and white wine were less active

–Amongst the fruit juices, sweet cherry juice had the highest inhibitory effect on HAAs, followed by juices from kiwi fruit, plum and blueberry

–The juices from watermelon, blackberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, and red delicious apple showed a moderate effect against HAAs, whereas sour cherry, grapefruit, red currant, and pineapple juices were only slightly active

–Granny Smith apple juice and orange juice proved inactive

–Of the vegetable juices, strong inhibition of HAA toxicity was seen with spinach and onion juices

–Broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot, sweet pepper, tomato, chard, and red-cabbage juices suppressed toxicity moderately

–Cucumber juice was ineffective

Now here’s where the study gets particularly interesting: it seems that sour cherry, blueberry, and blackcurrant juices suppressed the first step of HAA activation, whereas most vegetable-derived beverages inhibited the second step. What does that mean? It means that when you add fruits AND vegetables to your diet, you are instigating a powerful two-step form of protection against cancer.

So, here is a simple task for you: just add sweet cherries, spinach and onion to your diet and you’ll be greatly increasing your chances of maintaining a healthy body.

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Potato Juice to Relieve Heartburn

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

The good news about heartburn is that it can often be eased by using a few simple home remedies. The simplest of all these remedies is water. The next time you have an attack, drink a large glass of water. If that doesn’t work for you, try a glass of raw potato juice. Just wash a potato and throw it in a juicer. Don’t remove the peel first. Drink immediately after you prepare the juice. Take three times a day. Alternately, a glass of fresh cabbage or celery juice might do the trick.

Ginger is known to absorb stomach acids and, at the same time, it can calm your nerves. Fresh papaya (with the seeds) can aid digestion, as can pineapple. Both contain special enzymes that help food break down in your stomach and keep this part of the digestion process running smoothly. Another popular home remedy that many people vouch for is a vinegar tonic. Mix one tablespoon of vinegar in a glass of water and drink during your meal.

Don’t eat before bedtime. Try to wait at least three hours after eating before you lie down. Some prescription drugs can aggravate heartburn. Even over-the-counter medications like aspirin and ibuprofen can cause heartburn. One more trick for easing heartburn: lie down on your left side. This keeps your stomach below your esophagus, helping to keep it acid-free.

Remember these three basic rules:

1. Don’t overeat.
2. If you’re having a heartburn attack, don’t lie down.
3. Find out your trigger foods and try to avoid them.

Here’s one more thing to consider: a recent clinical trial has a new take on how to prevent and treat heartburn. Researchers looked at celiac disease (CD) patients and found they often complain of symptoms consistent with reflux disease. So, they set out to assess the prevalence of heartburn symptoms in celiac patients and to determine the impact of a gluten-free diet on these symptoms.

The research team evaluated 133 adult CD patients and 70 healthy controls. Fifty-three patients completed questionnaires every three months during the first year and more than four years after diagnosis. Heartburn symptoms were evaluated using a symptoms rating scale.

The researchers found that, after diagnosis, celiac patients had a significantly higher reflux symptom mean score than the healthy controls. After three months of treatment on a gluten-free diet, they found there was a rapid improvement with reflux scores — so much so that scores were actually comparable to the healthy controls from the three-month mark onward. They concluded that reflux symptoms are common in untreated CD patients and that a gluten-free diet is associated with a rapid and persistent improvement in reflux symptoms that matched the healthy controls.

If nothing else has worked for you, give a gluten-free diet a try and see if your heartburn symptoms disappear.

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Study Reveals Chocolate is Good For Your Heart

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

A brand new study has found that women who regularly eat a small amount of chocolate have a lower risk of heart failure. It appears in “Circulation: Heart Failure,” a journal of the American Heart Association.

The nine-year study, conducted among nearly 32,000 middle-aged and elderly Swedish women, looked at the relationship between the amount of high-quality chocolate the women ate and risk for heart failure. The quality of chocolate consumed by the women had a higher density cocoa content, similar to dark chocolate found in the U.S. Cocoa is widely known as the agent that makes chocolate heart-healthy.

The study’s findings:

– Women who ate an average of one to two servings of chocolate per week had a 32% lower risk of developing heart failure.

– Those who had one to three servings per month had a 26% lower risk.

– Those who consumed at least one serving daily or more didn’t appear to benefit from a protective effect against heart failure.

That’s an important point that needs to be emphasized. The lack of a protective effect among daily chocolate consumption is probably due to all the extra calories gained from the chocolate, rather than more nutritious foods. Only in great moderation can dark chocolate give you heart protection.

High concentration of compounds called “flavonoids” in chocolate may lower blood pressure, among other benefits. But this is the first study to show long-term outcomes related specifically to heart failure. Its conclusions came from natural information from 1998 to 2006.

Essentially, the higher the cocoa content, the greater the heart benefits. In Sweden, even milk chocolate has a high cocoa concentration. Although 90% of all chocolate eaten across Sweden during the study period was milk chocolate, it contained about 30% cocoa solids. In the U.S., dark chocolate needs only to have 15% cocoa solids to qualify. The best idea is simply to search for the bars of chocolate very high in cocoa — and they will advertise this very clearly.

The lesson here is that a little dark chocolate can be healthful, as long as other problems such as weight gain don’t occur.

Heart failure affects one in 100 Americans over age 65. It’s a condition where the heart can’t pump enough blood to the rest of the body.

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A Little Red Meat Can Benefit Your Health

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Worried about eating beef? Don’t like all the bad press you’ve heard about red meat and disease? But what if you’d like to use red meat as a source of nutrients? Beef is, after all, the number one food source of protein, zinc and vitamin B12 according to some researchers.

You probably know that most of the bad press centered around red meat concerns its saturated fat content. And, before you protest that beef contains too much saturated fat, here are some points to consider. The cattle industry feeds their animals either grain or grass. This gives you a choice: buy grain-fed beef or buy grass-fed beef. The wisest choice is most certainly grass-fed beef. It even trumps so-called “organic” meat. In a nutshell, the difference lies in the fat content of the meat. Grass-fed cattle have far more omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed cattle do.

Cows were meant to eat grass; they naturally exist on pastures. Grass is healthier for them and, in turn, it is healthier for us. Why would we feed them grain, which is less healthy for us? The answer is that it is cheaper for the farmers. It is also easier to control grain feed than to allow cattle full access to a pasture. Instead of this, they are put in feed lots, where they are fed grain in an effort to fatten them up and get them to the market quicker.

Basically, cows manufacture omega-3 fatty acids from the grass in their stomachs. And with the evidence out there about the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio (most of us are higher in omega-6s than we should be), it’s clear that beef fed grass need not be considered something to avoid altogether. It can be, like fish, an important source of the unsaturated fat you need for the maintenance of good health.

Australian researchers in one study have stated that, because grass-fed cows have significantly more omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed animals, such beef has the ability to enhance your health. They tested cattle raised on grass, cattle raised on grass but then switched to grain for a short time, and cattle switched to grain for a long period of time. The latter is, unfortunately, what goes on most in the U.S. The grass-fed cows had much higher omega-3 levels than both the other groups that had switched to grain did. This beef had enough EPA and DHA to qualify as a “significant” source of these fats, which are more commonly linked to eating fish. The grass-fed meat also had less total fat and saturated fat.

Don’t be afraid to add a little red meat to your diet. Eating grass-fed beef once a week may actually benefit your health if you find that your levels of protein, zinc and/or B12 are low.

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More Dangers Identified for Even the Slightly Overweight

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

A brand new study just came back with what can safely be described as the most critical reason why trying to shed pounds is important. It found that those with a large waist circumference appear to have a greater risk of dying from any cause over a nine-year period. The study from the “Archives of Internal Medicine” highlights why excess fat is so dangerous.

Large waist circumference has previously been linked with inflammation, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, abnormal cholesterol levels and heart disease. This may be because waist circumference is strongly correlated with fat tissue in the viscera. This is the area that surrounds the organs in the abdomen, and fat build-up here is believed to be more dangerous than fat tissue under the skin.

Researchers with the American Cancer Society examined this issue in 48,500 men and 56,343 women age 50 and older, with an average age of 68. All had participated in a cancer prevention study and had completed a questionnaire about many things — including providing information about weight and waist circumference — in 1997.

Deaths and their causes were tracked through the National Death Index through the end of 2006. In this nine-year period, 9,315 men and 5,332 women passed away.

After adjusting for other risk factors for death, very large waists had an approximate two-times the risk of death in this study. “Very large” was measured at 120 cm or 47 inches and above in men, and 110 cm or 42 inches and above in women. A larger waist was associated with higher risk of death across all categories, including those with normal weight. The link was strongest in women, between those with large waists and those of normal waist size, but researchers aren’t clear why.

The researchers say that further studies into the relationship between waist circumference and visceral fat could help us understand this increased risk of death more accurately.

Losing fat around the waist can seem very challenging, and you must know it is a long process. To help that process, stick to your treatment plan, take any medications as directed, learn about obesity, get family and friends to help you reach your goals, avoid triggers that make you want to eat, set realistic goals and keep a food and activity journal to reflect on.

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Vitamin C and E Just The Start of Helping Macular Degeneration

Monday, August 16th, 2010

We all know that “20/20″ vision is the ultimate symbol of clear vision. But regardless of one’s vision at the moment, it can diminish over time. Between now and the year 2020, more and more people will experience some extent of vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration and other sight-robbing diseases.

How can we stop the slide? A lot of it has to do with what you decide to put on your plate, and in your glass.

U.S. scientists at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research are finding that healthy eating could reduce not only healthcare costs, but also the decline of quality of life due to these diseases. The laboratory is part of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

The “macula” is the 3-millimeter-wide yellow spot near the center of the retina responsible for the central field of vision.

One study showed that people who eat a diet high in vision-protecting nutrients and complex carbohydrates did help shield their eyes from macular degeneration. The complex carb idea runs alongside the low-glycemic-index idea. A food’s glycemic index is an indicator of how fast the carbohydrates it contains will spike blood sugar levels.

In the study, researchers analyzed the diets and other information from more than 4,000 men and women, aged 55 to 80. They were enrolled in a long-term Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Researchers ranked intake of each of several nutrients consumed during that long-term study, and then calculated how much dietary effect they had on the risk of macular degeneration.

Now we get to the sweet part. Along with a diet full of complex carbs, here are the nutrients found to be most protective against vision loss:

– Vitamin C
– Vitamin E
– Zinc
– Lutein (a natural plant chemical that turns fruits and vegetables yellow and green)
– Zeaxanthin (a flavonoid found in nearly all herbs, fruits and vegetables)
– Omega-3 fatty acids (in particular, DHA and EPA)

Both lutein and zeaxanthin are found in some measure in your retina. They are now very common supplements as well. This list shows that eating a lot of vegetables and fruits, as well as fatty fish, could protect your eyesight. When you eat grain products, make sure they are whole grain, so you get optimal levels of complex carbs.

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Trans Fat Levels Going Down at Fast Food Chains

Monday, August 16th, 2010

A lot of us enjoy eating fast food. While it is, needless to say, not a terribly healthy approach to nutrition, there are certainly pleasures most people find from fast food. So, in the wake of all the bad news associated with this industry, let’s shine a light on some positive developments for a moment.

Five major chains have significantly decreased trans fats in the oils they use to cook food, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota. The new stats suggest that fast food companies may have been responsive to health concerns voiced by the public.

Certainly the industry is starting to shift, with much attention now paid to providing nutritional information for their various menu items. The lowering of trans fats means that we might watch for shifts in the industry that happen in response to current nutrition concerns, including high salt content and what type of energy fast food provides the human body.

With any luck, it could be the start of the road to healthier fast food. That would be a defining transformation to help fight the epidemics of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes that are sweeping across the United States.

Researchers used a database that catalogues the nutritional values of more than 18,000 foods in the study. They looked at trans fat and saturated fat levels in French fries from
McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, and Dairy Queen.

They found that three of the restaurants — McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s — significantly decreased the trans and saturated fatty acid composition of French fries between 1997 and 2008. For these three, saturated fats either went down or stayed level. While the remaining two restaurants didn’t show a decrease in trans fats in that time period, current nutritional information illustrates that the chains have decreased both trans and saturated fatty acid composition since 2008.

An important point is that the companies haven’t raised saturated fat levels to replace the trans fats. Both are unhealthy fats and by far the biggest contributors to obesity. The news, on whole, is very relevant to the nation’s overall health because the average citizen gets about 10% of his or her calories from fast food. Clearly, eating fast food only in moderation is the best approach, as they will always be higher than needed in calories and salt.

Over the past 10 years, trans fats began receiving a great deal of negative attention. Research demonstrated that they can elevate the risk of heart disease by increasing “bad” LDL cholesterol and decreasing “good” HDL cholesterol levels.

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Can Fish Oil Make You Smarter?

Monday, August 9th, 2010

The cerebrum is the largest part of your brain and controls a lot of your physical and mental activities. Thinking and learning takes place in the cerebrum. You can also store a lot of information in your cerebrum.

As we age, we can lose some of our ability to learn and to remember things. Our short-term memory may be affected. This is the type of memory you store for only a few minutes. When you need to remember information for longer periods, you are using your long-term memory. You can store information about all kinds of things in your long-term memory that can stay with you your entire lifetime. Keeping cognitive abilities and memory strong is very important for living a healthy and long life.

Fortunately, though the brain is an amazingly complex and sophisticated part of you, it is still just an organ. You can keep your brain healthy, just like you can your heart or your liver, by eating foods that nourish it. Brain-boosting foods can have a real and lasting impact when it comes to keeping thinking skills sharp and memory intact.

One of the most potent brain-boosting foods is fish — particularly the fatty kind. What’s so special about fatty fish? And why is this the one time you’ll actually hear nutritionists say “the fattier the better?” Fatty fish contains DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid that plays a critical role in your brain’s function.

One of the reasons fish oil plays such a big role in brain health and in the health of other organs like your heart is that many of the vitamins you need require fat to break them down. Vitamins A, E, D and K are all fat-soluble — so, if you don’t have healthy fat in your diet, very little vitamin A, E, D or K can get absorbed into your system!

In one recent clinical trial, researchers discovered that fish oil protected rats’ brains from age-related damage to the hippocampus. And, in another trial performed at the University
of California, researchers found that DHA slows the progression of age-related dementia.

Believe the studies; if you eat fish regularly, your brain could function as if you were much younger than your actual age. Some of the best sources of fatty fish are salmon, sardines, albacore tuna, halibut, trout, herring, cod, and whitefish. Keep in mind that eating fish fried in batter with a serving of fries is not the way to go here. Buy fish fresh if you can and grill it at home. Most fish cook quickly and can easily be made into a tasty meal by adding some lemon, herbs, and a dash of pepper.

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The Cancer-preventing Protein

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

If you’ve decided to cut back on your consumption of red meat and are looking for a protein substitute, here’s one that could help you fight cancer: soy. Soy is an inexpensive, high-quality plant protein. It is vitamin- and mineral-rich. It contains plant-based omega-3 fatty acids. And it has a whole host of disease-fighting phytonutrients. Soy is the highest source of health-promoting phytoestrogens.

Asian diets, typically high in soy, have resulted in lower rates of cancer, as well as less heart disease and osteoporosis. You won’t have any trouble finding ways to incorporate soy into your diet. It seems everywhere you turn in the grocery store, there is another product made with soy.

In particular, studies have shown that soy helps to fight colon cancer. Most people don’t think about their colons much and most never bother to get their colons examined. But your colon is susceptible to cancer just like other parts of your body, and you’ll want someone to check up on it from time to time. Doctors use a variety of tests to look for growths inside the colon that shouldn’t be there. Screening typically begins at age 50, but may begin earlier if there is a family history of colon cancer.

To avoid the complications of this serious disease, add a little soy to your diet each week. In a recent clinical trial, Chinese researchers found that soy actually changed the structure of colon cancer cells, helping to break them down and preventing them from growing and spreading.

A few tips for eating soy: add tofu or other soy products last to a meal that you are making. Cooking soy at high heat for extended periods of time may reduce or eliminate many of the nutritional benefits. If you’re in a hurry and you decide to have a ready-made soy product like a burger for a meal, try to buy those products that contain soy protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or textured vegetable protein. Stay away from soy protein
concentrates, which have had most of the beneficial nutrients extracted. Drink full-fat soy milk as it contains 50% more phytoestrogens than the low-fat kind.

One final note: along with soy, up your daily fiber intake. Studies have shown that a diet high in fiber reduces the risk of developing colon cancer. By adding more fiber to your diet, you are staving off other diseases such as diabetes and gallstones, too. Fiber retains water, resulting in softer and bulkier stools that prevent constipation and hemorrhoids. Medical experts think a high-fiber diet could keep colon cancer at bay by speeding the rate at which stool passes through the intestine, keeping the digestive tract clean. In addition, fiber binds with certain harmful substances in the body and helps with their quick removal.

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