The researchers examined data on the eating habits of 31,337 children from four nationally representative surveys of food intake. They found: “The largest increases in snacking events have been in salty snack and candy consumption; however, desserts and sweetened beverages remain the major sources of calories from snacks.” Unfortunately they also found that snacking on fresh fruit has declined significantly compared to the late 1970s. So extra calories are coming from more junk food and less healthy foods.

Popkin and Piernas concluded: “Our findings suggest that children ages 2–18 are experiencing important increases in snacking behavior and are moving toward a consumption pattern of three meals plus three snacks per day. This raises the question of whether the physiological basis for eating is becoming dysregulated, as our children are moving toward constant eating.” (Trends in Snacking Among US Children, Health Affairs. 29, No. 3 (2010): 398–404)

Overweight problems and obesity in childhood constitutes a timebomb in society. If you have children aged 2 to 18 years, don’t wait for others, start defusing it now!

The most important factors driving an increase in the burden of food-borne disease in the next few decades were found to be the anticipated doubling of the global demand for food and of the international trade in food next to a significantly increased consumption of certain high-value food commodities such as meat and poultry and fresh produce. A less important factor potentially increasing the food-borne disease burden would be the increased demand for convenience foods. This may come as a surprise to many people whose only experience with microbiolgical contaminants in food could be stories of gastroenteritis related to some local fast-food outlet.

Factors that may contribute to a reduction in the food-borne disease burden were identified as the ability of governments around the world to take effective regulatory measures as well as the development and use of new food safety technologies and detection methods. The most important factor in reducing the burden of food-borne disease was identified as our ability to first detect and investigate a food safety issue and then to develop effective control measures.

The study deals with issues on a grand scale, recognising the global nature of the food industry. In reality, individuals would do well to restrict consumption of “manufactured foods” or highly processed food products. Eating properly washed and prepared whole foods is much healthier and it eliminates a huge proportion of the risk considered by the study. Of course, growing, storage and transportation conditions all still impact the risk assessment with whole foods, since much “fresh” produce that people consume is grown by other people in sometimes distant places.

That’s according to a new study by Texas AgriLife Research food scientists, who examined the five varieties most common in the U.S.: Kent, Francine, Ataulfo, Tommy/Atkins and Haden. Though the mango is an ancient fruit heavily consumed in many parts of the world, little has been known about its health aspects. The National Mango Board commissioned a variety of studies with several U.S. researchers to help determine its nutritional value.

“If you look at what people currently perceive as a superfood, people think of high antioxidant capacity, and mango is not quite there,” said Dr. Susanne Talcott, who with her husband, Dr. Steve Talcott, conducted the study on cancer cells. “In comparison with antioxidants in blueberry, acai and pomegranate, it’s not even close.”

But the team checked mango against cancer cells anyway, and found it prevented or stopped cancer growth in certain breast and colon cell lines, Susanne Talcott noted.

“It has about four to five times less antioxidant capacity than an average wine grape, and it still holds up fairly well in anticancer activity. If you look at it from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking super food,” she said. “It would be good to include mangoes as part of the regular diet.”

The Talcotts tested mango polyphenol extracts in vitro on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancers. Polyphenols are natural substances in plants and are associated with a variety of compounds known to promote good health.

Mango showed some impact on lung, leukemia and prostate cancers but was most effective on the most common breast and colon cancers.

“What we found is that not all cell lines are sensitive to the same extent to an anticancer agent,” she said. “But the breast and colon cancer lines underwent apotosis, or programmed cell death. Additionally, we found that when we tested normal colon cells side by side with the colon cancer cells, that the mango polyphenolics did not harm the normal cells.”

The duo did further tests on the colon cancer lines because a mango contains both small molecules that are readily absorbed and larger molecules that would not be absorbed and thus remain present in a colon.

“We found the normal cells weren’t killed, so mango is not expected to be damaging in the body,” she said. “That is a general observation for any natural agent, that they target cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone, in reasonable concentrations at least.”

The Talcotts evaluated polyphenolics, and more specifically gallotannins, as being the class of bioactive compounds (responsible for preventing or stopping cancer cells). Tannins are polyphenols that are often bitter or drying and found in such common foods as grape seed, wine and tea.

The study found that the cell cycle, which is the division cells go through, was interrupted. This is crucial information, Suzanne Talcott said, because it indicates a possible mechanism for how the cancer cells are prevented or stopped.

“For cells that may be on the verge of mutating or being damaged, mango polyphenolics prevent this kind of damage,” she said.

The Talcotts hope to do a small clinical trial with individuals who have increased inflammation in their intestines with a higher risk for cancer.

“From there, if there is any proven efficacy, then we would do a larger trial to see if there is any clinical relevance,” she said.

According to the National Mango Board, based in Winter Park, Fla., most mangoes consumed in the U.S. are produced in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and Haiti. Mangoes are native to southeast Asia and India and are produced in tropical climates. They were introduced to the U.S. in the late 1800s, and a few commercial acres still exist in California and Florida.

Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

Mangoes are certainly delicious and an easy way to add to your daily fruit intake. The information above is just a little too “seen it all before” to become excited about. Most claims assigning so-called “super food” status should be taken with a grain of salt. They are usually marketing dressed up in so-called science. Nevertheless, enjoy your mangoes.

The research was conducted on mice. Strandberg said that S. aureus-induced mortality was investigated in four groups where subjects were fed: a lard-based high fat diet (HFD), a diet rich in saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids (HFD/S), a low fat diet (LFD) or a HFD rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (HFD/P) from fish. After eight weeks on these diets the mice were exposed to S. aureus intravenously.

The results showed that the obese HFD/S-fed mice had increased S. aureus induced mortality compared with the lean LFD-fed mice. The HFD/S-fed mice showed signs of immune suppression evidenced by increased bacterial load and decreased capacity to phagocytose bacteria. Additionally, the HFD/P-fed mice displayed a degree of obesity and glucose intolerance that was milder than in the HFD/S-fed mice, but higher than in LFD mice.

Interestingly, the S. aureus induced mortality and the bacterial load of HFD/P-fed mice were comparable with that of LFD-fed mice, and markedly lower than that of mice fed HFD/S. This suggests that fatty food rather than obesity in itself affected the ability of the mice to fight off sepsis caused by bacteria. The usual assumption is that obesity itself is associated with inflammation that does not result from an infection, meaning that the immune defences are activated unnecessarily. Ironically, the mice on the high-fat diet (HFD/S) seem to have a less active immune system when it is really needed.

Strandberg concluded that the white blood cells of the mice on the HFD/S diet got worse at dealing with bacteria in the blood which could have contributed to many of them dying of sepsis. There are some quite interesting findings in this doctoral research that are well worth follow-up study.

The findings, published in the October/November issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, provide a simple dietary intervention that could result in weight loss and have significant impact on several epidemic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease.

The findings are the result of a clinical study involving over 350 people which was conducted in collaboration with, and with support from, the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The study builds on earlier research conducted in animal models that demonstrated the effective prevention of these diseases and even the extension of lifespan by consuming a reduced AGE diet.

“What is noteworthy about our findings is that reduced AGE consumption proved to be effective in all study participants, including healthy persons and persons who have a chronic condition such as kidney disease,” said the study’s lead author Helen Vlassara, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

“This suggests that oxidants may play a more active role than genetics in overwhelming our body’s defenses, which we need to fight off disease. It has been said that nature holds the power, but the environment pulls the trigger. The good news is that unlike genetics, we can control oxidant levels, which may not be an accompaniment to disease and aging, but instead due to the cumulative toxic influence of AGEs,” said Dr. Vlassara.

AGEs are harmful substances that are abundant in Western diets, and proliferate when foods are heated, pasteurized, dried, smoked, fried or grilled. Once absorbed in the body, AGEs adhere to tissues and oxidize them, causing inflammation which in turn can lead to disease. Numerous animal studies conducted by Dr. Vlassara and her team have shown that oxidative stress from high oxidant levels and inflammation related to long-term exposure to AGEs may increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and other chronic conditions.

For the study, a subset of 40 healthy participants who were either between the ages or 18 and 45 or older than 60, and another nine patients with kidney disease, were randomly assigned to one of two diets. One group followed their own regular Western diet that was rich in AGEs. The second group followed a diet of similar caloric and nutrient content, but with only one-half the amount of AGEs, known as the “AGE-less diet.” Participants in the AGE-less intervention were advised to avoid grilling, frying or baking their food and instead were instructed to poach, stew, or steam their meals. There was no change in calories or nutrient intake during this period.

After four months on the AGE-less diet, blood AGE levels, lipid peroxides, inflammatory markers, and biomarkers of vascular function declined by as much as 60 percent in healthy participants. A reduction of similar magnitude was found in kidney patients after only one month on the AGE-less diet.

Researchers also found a positive effect on a cellular receptor for AGEs called AGER1, which is critical for the clearance of toxic AGEs from the body. The number of copies of the AGER1 gene was measured in circulating blood cells. Since this number was severely suppressed in participants with kidney disease, all of whom had very high levels of AGEs, the researchers speculate that important defense mechanisms can become “exhausted” as a result of chronically elevated AGEs. However, after a short period on the AGE-reduced diet, the number of AGER1 gene copies was restored to normal levels among patients with kidney disease.

The investigators believe that daily AGE consumption in the standard Western diet is at least three times higher than the safety limit for these oxidants. This could, in part, explain the changes seen in disease demographics.

Dr. Vlassara cautioned, “Even though the AGEs pose a more immediate health threat to older adults, they are a similar danger for younger people, including pregnant women and children, and this needs to be addressed. AGEs are ubiquitous and addictive, since they provide flavor to foods. But they can be controlled through simple methods of cooking, such as keeping the heat down and the water content up in food and by avoiding pre-packaged and fast foods when possible. Doing so reduces AGE levels in the blood and helps the body restore its own defenses.”

SOURCE The Mount Sinai Medical Center

In other words, eating the typically recommended “naturopathic” diet and avoiding the types of foods and cooking methods most naturopaths recommend avoiding would mean you were consuming the AGE-Less diet. I hope you are, because we have been recommending it for a very long time. It is good to see this research from The Mount Sinai Medical Center as it further supports what has long been taught by us.