1. Selenium and Asthma - risk reduced in children
Higher levels of the antioxidant trace mineral selenium, along with antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamin C, have been associated with a reduced risk of asthma. The research found an increase in selenium was associated with a 10 to 20 per cent decrease in asthma cases. The researchers said selenium is best sourced from foods rich in the protective nutrient.
2. Wholegrains and Heart Disease - new health claim in Sweden
The benefits of wholegrains are further confirmed with a new health claim supporting their reduction of heart disease risk approved in Sweden . The claim is the ninth to be approved by Sweden 's voluntary health claims code and gives food makers greater opportunity to market the health benefits of foods rich in wholegrains.
3. Grains and Heart Disease - consumer brochure available
Given the overwhelming evidence supporting the beneficial role of wholegrains in preventing the risk of heart disease, Go Grains has an easy-to-read summary of the scientific evidence - with helpful tips and meal suggestions - available to download from the Go Grains website.
4. More Benefits from Folate - reducing stroke and depression
While folate is best known for its role in preventing neutral tube defects in newborn infants, there may be good reason to ensure everyone consumes this important B group vitamin. The latest research shows a reduction in death from stroke, and reduced depression, with increased folate.
Vitamin E Protects against Prostate Cancer
Two forms of vitamin E appear to lower the risk of prostate cancer by as much as 53 percent and 39 per cent respectively. US Researchers found that the men taking a vitamin E supplement - and who had the highest blood vitamin E levels at baseline - had the lowest prostate cancer risk.
Varied, Wholesome Diets Ideal for Weight Loss
New research confirms the benefits of a varied, wholesome diet and calls into question the wisdom of low-carb and other fad diets that limit the kinds of foods people can eat. Men and women who ate three or more daily servings of wholegrain foods were the least likely to be overweight or obese.
Carbohydrates Essential for Effective Dieting
The current low-carb and high-protein diet craze has demonised carbohydrates. Carbs have been accused of causing weight gain and blamed as the reason people can't lose weight. Do they deserve this stigma? Not according to researchers at MIT in the US .
The Changing Future Of Grains
The Australian grains industry has produced a strategy report up to the year 2025 as a comprehensive and wide-ranging attempt to chart the industry's future. The report found that Australian grain growers are looking at a radical new future where demand will be bigger than ever - in unexpected ways.
Full stories:
1. Selenium & antioxidants reduce child asthma (back to contents)
Higher levels of the antioxidant trace mineral selenium, along with antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamin C, have been associated with a lower risk of asthma in a large study on young Americans.
The antioxidants had even stronger protection against asthma in subgroups of children exposed to passive smoke, according to researchers from Cornell University , New York .
An increase in selenium was associated with a 10 to 20 per cent decrease in asthma prevalence, and in youth with passive smoke exposure, investigators found a 50 per cent reduction in asthma prevalence associated with selenium. Dietary selenium comes from cereal grains, fish, meat, and poultry, and the researchers advise that foods rich in the protective nutrients are better than taking supplements.
The Cornell team studied data from 6,153 people aged from four to 16 years old who were a part of the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHAMES III). A household youth questionnaire, answered usually by the mother, was used for participants less than 17 years old and the study included a comprehensive health examination.
Separate antioxidant models found that blood levels of vitamin E had little or no association with asthma. However, a standard deviation increase in beta-carotene was associated with a 10 per cent reduction in asthma prevalence in those not exposed to smoke and a 40 per cent reduction in young persons who had passive smoke exposure. The pattern for vitamin C was similar to beta-carotene results, according to the researchers.
2. Sweden approves wholegrains heart disease claim (back to contents)
The benefits of wholegrains are further confirmed with a new health claim supporting their reduction of heart disease risk approved in Sweden . The claim, the ninth to be approved by Sweden 's voluntary health claims code, gives food makers greater opportunity to market the health benefits of foods rich in wholegrains.
The health claim is based on a body of scientific evidence showing that eating wholegrain cereals reduces the chance of death from heart disease and reduces risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Products using the new claim must meet a nutritional profile which specifies they contain at least 50 per cent wholegrain (dry matter) and limited amounts of sugar and fat.
The wording of the claim is: "A healthy lifestyle and a well balanced diet rich in wholegrain products reduces the risk for coronary heart disease. The product X is rich in wholegrain (contains Y% of wholegrain)".
Sweden 's voluntary code on health-related claims, or product-specific physiological claims, has existed since 1990 and the approach is attracting attention from across the world and is coordinated by the Swedish Nutrition Foundation .
Like the UK 's Joint Health Claims Initiative ( JHCI ), it offers pre-marketing evaluation of scientific documentation supporting claims. It has also accepted health claims relating to saturated fatty acids and certain fibres.
The JHCI has approved a generic claim for wholegrains, which states: 'People with a healthy heart tend to eat more wholegrain foods as part of a healthy lifestyle.'
It follows a similar claim approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Approval of the claim throughout Europe 's markets could take some time after a European parliamentary committee decided not to proceed with a parliament vote on a proposed regulation to harmonise health claims.
Bread and breakfast cereals may not be foods that come immediately to mind when thinking about eating for a healthy heart, but research shows that eating wholegrain cereal products is a sure way to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Given the overwhelming evidence supporting the beneficial role of wholegrains in preventing the risk of heart disease, Go Grains has produced an easy-to-read summary of the scientific evidence with helpful tips and meal suggestions.
While folic acid, or folate, is best known for its role in preventing the incidence of birth deformities call neutral tube defects in newborn infants, there may be good reason to ensure people other than pregnant women consume this important B-group vitamin.
Research presented at the recent American Heart Association's (AHA) 44th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in the US, showed that folic acid found in enriched grain products helps reduce stroke deaths.
Lead investigator, Dr Lorenzo Botto from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said his research "found evidence of a three-fold acceleration in the decline of stroke-associated mortality that is temporally related to fortification of flour with folic acid".
In 1996, the US FDA required enriched grain products be fortified with folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in newborns. At the time, it was thought that this fortification program may also offer a secondary benefit of reducing serum homocysteine concentrations in the population as a whole, which might lead to a decline in death rates due to cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Botto and his team estimate that 31,000 stroke-associated deaths and 17,000 deaths related to heart disease may have been prevented each year since fortification was implemented. "If folic acid fortification is responsible for the improvement in stroke-associated mortality, the public health benefits are substantial," Dr Botto said.
In other research, funded by the US Agricultural Research Service, evidence is emerging showing a link between various stages of depression and low blood levels of folate.
Epidemiologist Martha Savaria Morris, from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston , studied data based on a questionnaire given to 3,000 people aged 15 to 39 years. The data showed that individuals with either major or mild forms of depression had lower blood levels of folate than did those who had never been depressed.
Folic acid is used to fortify enriched grain products such as breakfast cereals, bread, pasta, flour and rice. Folate is also naturally present in foods such as beef liver, kidney beans and green leafy vegetables.
The researchers said different folates are absorbed by the body at different rates, and not all folate consumed is absorbed by the body. Alcohol, certain medications and anaemia can reduce the body's ability to absorb and use folate.
Two forms of vitamin E - alpha- and gamma-tocopherol - appear to lower the risk of prostate cancer by as much as 53 percent and 39 per cent respectively, based on the findings of a team of scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle and the National Public Health Institute of Finland.
The researchers, led by Dr Stephanie Weinstein from of the NCI Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, drew their subjects from the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study cohort of 29,133 Finnish men, aged between 50 and 69 years. From that group were selected 100 men with prostate cancer and 200 without, to determine whether an association exists between higher levels of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol circulating in the blood stream and lower risks of prostate cancer.
The researchers found that the men who received a vitamin E supplement and who had the highest blood vitamin E levels at baseline displayed the lowest risk of prostate cancer. Dr Weinstein said wholegrain products, nuts and seeds, vegetable oils, salad dressings, margarine, beans, peas and other vegetables are good dietary sources of vitamin E.
To achieve optimum serum levels of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, Weinstein recommended following the official dietary guidelines which call for eating more wholegrains, fruits and vegetables, and fewer fats and sugars.
New research confirms the benefits of a varied, wholesome diet and calls into question the wisdom of low-carb and other fad diets that limit what kinds of foods people can eat.
The research, presented by the American Association of Nutritional Sciences at a joint conference in Washington called Experimental Biology 2004, found that men and women who ate three or more daily servings of wholegrain foods were the least likely to be overweight or obese.
Dr Carolyn Good and colleagues at General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition in Minneapolis looked at 9,000 men and women taking part in the US Department of Agriculture's Continuing Survey of Food Intakes. This nationwide study collects information on the consumption of wholegrains found in packaged cereals, wholegrain breads and crackers.
The researchers found that women who consumed three or more servings of wholegrain foods a day had a significantly lower body mass index (calculated by comparing height to weight) than those who ate less than one serving a day. The trend was similar in men, but the result for men was not to a point considered statistically significant.
The current low-carb and high-protein diet craze has demonized carbohydrates. Carbs have been accused of causing weight gain and blamed as the reason people can't lose weight. Do they deserve this stigma? Not according to research by Dr Judith Wurtman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US .
Dr Wurtman, director of the Program in Women's Health at the MIT Clinical Research Centre, has found that when you stop eating carbohydrates, your brain stops regulating serotonin, a chemical that elevates mood and suppresses appetite. And only carbohydrate consumption naturally stimulates production of serotonin.
"When serotonin is made and becomes active in your brain, its effect on your appetite is to make you feel full before your stomach is stuffed and stretched," Dr Wurtman said.
"Serotonin is crucial not only to control your appetite and stop you from overeating, it's essential to keep your moods regulated."
Antidepressant medications are designed to make serotonin more active in the brain and extend that activity for longer periods of time to assist in regulating moods. Carbohydrates raise serotonin levels and act like a natural tranquilizer.
Wurtman's husband, Professor Richard Wurtman, a Professor at MIT and Director of the Clinical Research Centre, discovered that the brain makes serotonin only after a person consumes sweet or starchy carbohydrates. But he also found these carbohydrates must be eaten in combination with very little or no protein.
So a meal like pasta or a snack of crackers will allow the brain to make serotonin, but eating chicken and potatoes will actually prevent serotonin from being made. The researchers said this explains why people can still feel hungry even after they have eaten a large steak - their stomachs are full, but their brains may not be making enough serotonin to shut off their appetites.
The Australian grains industry has produced a strategy report up to the year 2025 as a comprehensive and wide-ranging attempt to chart the industry's future. The report found that Australian grain growers are looking at a radical new future where demand will be bigger than ever in unexpected ways.
Commissioned by the Grains Council of Australia and funded by the GRDC, the report is a first response to studies that show the export demand for existing uses of Australian grains will not increase at the same rate as demand from new uses over the next decade and beyond.
The report was produced as a result of grower workshops, one-on-one interviews, focus group discussions, a 'Futures Forum' with Australian industry leaders and interviews with overseas industry leaders.
Under the banner 'towards a single vision', the strategy report calls for views to be aired and discussed as the industry faces a future in which the greatest growth in demand will be for fuels, pharmaceuticals and starches for biodegradable shopping bags; for food for fish and livestock rather than humans.
The report predicts demand for Australian grain could grow by more than 500 per cent in that time - five or six times what is now required. More than a quarter of cereals grown could go towards producing starch which will be used for food and biodegradable products to replace plastics. Modified starches could be used to make chemicals, solvents and acids. Grain products could also be used to make shampoos, cosmetics and soaps.
In 2002, demand for Australian grains was about 45 million tonnes. By 2020 is it forecast to grow to 70 million tonnes. But it's estimated that more than double this amount could be required for new markets, requiring Australian farmers to produce an extra 140 million tonnes of grains with up to 50 uses for wheat and hundreds of uses for pulses and oilseeds like canola or sunflower.
The report expects a growing demand for exported grain for developing countries, where, as their demand for meat increases, so will the need to feed livestock. In emerging markets, it is forecast that 455,000 tonnes of cereals will be needed to make biodegradable plastic replacement in 2020.
* Go Grains is a joint initiative of BRI Australia Ltd., an independent grains research centre, and the Grains Research and Development Corporation, which plans and invests in research and development on behalf of grain growers and the Federal Government. Privacy : Subscriber details will be used expressly for the Go Grains E-News Service and will not be provided to any other company or used for any other purpose. Each edition of the Go Grains E News Service will contain information on how to unsubscribe from future editions. Unsubscribe : If you wish to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this service, please email the E-News Service Coordinator at gge-news@bri.com.au . Disclaimer : The Go-Grains E-News Service is a collection of articles published by the sources identified. Go Grains and BRI Australia Ltd has collated and distributed these articles to update recipients on the latest scientific research and news concerning the nutrition and health benefits of grains and legumes. The articles may relate to products not yet approved, licensed, registered or available in Australia . Go Grains and BRI Australia Ltd accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in the articles and cannot endorse the conclusions reached by researchers and/or the authors of these articles. We acknowledge NutraIngredients.com and FoodNavigator.com for providing some of the content for this edition of E-News.
