You must read and accept the disclaimer to use this site. Updated for monthly, 2011

J Nutr, June 2011

SYNOPSES OF ARTICLES THIS MONTH

FEATURE: 1. Green tea modulates skin of women - Intake of the green tea polyphenol beverage for 12 wk increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to the skin. Likewise, in a separate, randomized, double-blind, single-dose (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 g) study of green tea polyphenols, blood flow was maximized at 30 min after ingestion. In summary, green tea polyphenols delivered in a beverage were shown to protect skin against harmful UV radiation and helped to improve overall skin quality of women.

EVERYONE: 2. One or two drinks of alcohol per day are good for health, but more has hazard - These results indicate that chronic, excessive ethanol consumption impairs normal hepatocyte proliferation, which is associated with reduced IGF-1 levels, but promotes hepatic carcinogenesis.

3. Rutin (in onions, apples, tea, and red wine) helps your heart - Rutin reversed or prevented metabolic changes such as abdominal fat pads and glucose tolerance, reversed or prevented changes in hepatic and cardiovascular structure and function, reversed oxidative stress and inflammation in the liver and heart, and normalized expression of liver markers.

4. DASH diet is best, even for diabetics - Among diabetic patients, the DASH diet can play an important role in reducing inflammation, plasma levels of fibrinogen, and liver aminotransferases.

5. One hour five days a week exercise at 80-85% of maximal heart rate recommended even for elderly obese - These data highlight the importance of diet composition in the treatment and prevention of inflammation and hyperglycemia. A low-glycemic index diet has antiinflammatory and antidiabetogenic effects when combined with exercise in older, obese prediabetics.

6. Epicatechin (cocoa, tea, red grapes) is important, even for those with obesity and diabetes - The lifespan of diabetic patients is 7–8 y shorter than that of the general population because of hyperglycemia-induced vascular complications and damage to other organs such as the liver and skeletal muscle. Therefore, epicatechin may be a novel food-derived, antiaging compound.

7. Fish oil reduces risk of infection with pulmonary P. aeruginosa.

8. PUFA increases bone strength and reduces hip fractures - Polyunsaturated fatty acids, like omega-3(n-3) and 6 (n-6), are found esp. in vegetable oils. (n-3) fatty acids: α-linolenic acid (ALA), EPA, DHA, EPA+DHA; (n-6) fatty acids: linoleic acid, arachidonic acid (AA); and the (n-6):(n-3) ratio are important to health. These findings suggest dietary ALA may reduce hip fracture risk in women and men and dietary AA may reduce hip fracture risk in men by 50 to 80%.

9. Lack of fruit and vegetables in diet changes your DNA - Two dietary patterns were identified using factor analysis: a “prudent” dietary pattern characterized by a high intake of vegetables and fruits, and a “Western” dietary pattern characterized by a high intake of meats, grains, dairy, oils, and potatoes. The prudent diet may protect against global DNA hypomethylation.

OBESITY: 10. Fast food portion sizes, esp. soda, pizza, and french fries, correlate with child obesity - Portion sizes increased across all food sources (stores, restaurants, and fast foods) for soft drinks and pizzas but only at fast-food locations for French fries. Portion sizes continue to grow for selected foods. Fast-food chains appear to be linked with less healthful portion size increases for selected foods.

11. A gene induced by obesity contributes to diabetes - In severe obesity, white adipose tissue (WAT) inflammation and macrophage infiltration are thought to contribute to WAT and whole-body insulin resistance. Because we found that CD11d expression also increased in RP-WAT of Zucker obese rats and in the subcutaneous WAT of obese adult women, this appears to be a common feature of obesity. Observed correlations of WAT macrophage transcript marker abundances with body weight in lean to modestly obese mice raises an interesting possibility that the activities of at least some WAT macrophages are closely linked to the normal adipose remodeling that is a requisite for changes in WAT energy storage capacity.

MOTHERS: 12. Thirty weeks of gestation are necessary before breast milk is immunologically adequate for birth - Human breast milk is the ideal nutrition for the newborn, and in addition to its nutritional contribution, necessary for infant growth and development, it contains various immune bioactive factors that confer some of the numerous beneficial effects of breastfeeding. esults suggest that maternal lactogenic compensatory mechanisms accelerating the development of immature breast-fed preterm infants may take effect only after wk 30 of gestation.

13. The necessity of prenatal DHA (a fish oil component) to the fetus's nervous system is correlated with effects when the child is over age 5 - Beneficial effects of perinatal DHA supply on later neurological development have been reported. Dosage to pregnant women was 500 mg/d DHA + 150 mg/d EPA (equivalent to about 3 g of fish oil per day) from the 20th week of pregnancy until delivery. Neurological development was assessed with the Hempel examination at the age of 4 y and the Touwen examination at 5.5 y. We conclude that higher DHA levels in cord blood may be related to a better neurological outcome at 5.5 y of age.

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Sabbatical until Jan, 2012
Professor, Biochemistry, Beloit College
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