Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine studied five men and three women, age 55 and older, who had suffered from sudden falls and recurrent dizziness. The subjects all described feelings of being forcibly pushed to the ground during their attacks, did not lose consciousness and had no other neurological symptoms.
Kathleen M. Koehler of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that thousands of people could be spared heart attacks each year if food manufacturers reduced use of trans fatty acids, a by-product of hydrogenation (a technique that solidifies liquid oils for use in processed foods), which has been implicated in causing buildup of cholesterol in arteries.
Soy has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease and possibly even protecting women from breast cancer. Scientists at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, compared the urine samples of two groups of people, one who ate a soy diet and one who did not.
Next time you order pizza don't feel too guilty, nutritionists believe that the Italian food's reputation as junk food is a little unfair. Pizza is an acceptable food choice because you get almost every food group, except maybe fruit -- and if you get a Hawaiian pizza, you even get that. Says Connie Diekman, a spokesperson for the American Dietary Association.
Monounsaturated oils have heart healthy benefits, and researchers now find that this type of oil may help in appetite control. Researchers at Hotel Dieu in Paris studied 12 healthy men, average age 24, who ate specially-prepared meals once a week for four weeks at the hospital. For lunch, they were served a chopped steak, French bread, a piece of cheese, an apple and a side dish of either mashed potatoes or rice.
As well as adding flavor and spice to meals, herbs are also packed with health-boosting antioxidants, according to researchers from the US Department of Agriculture. Drs. Wei Zheng and Shiow Y Wang discovered that oregano, rose geranium, sweet bay, purple amaranth, dill, winter savory and Vietnamese coriander all contained high levels of the free radical-fighting chemicals.
Although more people in the US are eating the recommended five servings per day of fruits and vegetables, research shows that most people are choosing foods that are low in folate and vitamin C. Nutrition researcher Christopher A. Taylor, of Arizona State University in Tempe warns the federally-issued guidelines on dietary intake contain no actual specific recommendation as to what should be consumed - it's just 'eat five.
High levels of homocysteine in the blood have been confirmed as a major risk factor for ischemic heart disease and other vascular disorders. Increases in consumption of folate are known to reduce plasma homocysteine (tHcy). Dietary folates consist of a mixture of polyglutamated compounds of folic acid, in contrast to simple monoglutaed folic acid.
Even though more people are eating the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables each day, it seems that the vast majority of the population is still ignoring government recommendations. The American Heart Association's (AHA) annual report revealed that 19% of men reported eating the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables in 1996, compared with nearly 17% in 1990.
Nutrition expert Dr Nancy Fogg-Johnson has predicted that people will soon be using their DNA to decide what to put in their shopping basket. Fogg-Johnson believes that we are entering into the age of nutrigenomics - "a new nutritional paradigm--the genetic era of nutrition," = where consumers use their genetic profile to determine a diet that will provide the most health benefits.
