Food Makers Scrimp on Ingredients In an Effort to Fatten Their Profits

By JULIE JARGON
Wall Street Journal

Major food makers are quietly altering their recipes on candy, dairy products and other top-selling lines, adding fillers and substituting cheaper ingredients to cut costs amid the commodities boom.

Hershey Co. is substituting vegetable oil for a portion of the cocoa butter traditionally used in some of its chocolates. Spice maker McCormick & Co. is now supplying food companies with cheaper spices and new flavor blends, such as Mexican oregano instead of pricier Mediterranean oregano, and garlic concentrate instead of heavier (and costlier to ship) garlic cloves.

General Mills Inc. says that by reducing the number of spice and ingredient pouches in boxes of Hamburger Helper -- and by halving the number of pasta shapes used in the product line -- the company has trimmed manufacturing costs 10%. The company is also replacing pecans with less expensive walnuts in its Pillsbury Turtle cookies.

Soy protein, a low-cost meat filler long used in school-cafeteria hamburgers, is making its way into more packaged foods, says Michael Considine, an executive at Minnesota grain company CHS Inc. In the past two years, he has seen a 10% increase in the volume of soy protein the group sells to major food companies, he says.

Most of the tweaked products still cost the same for consumers, if not more. Recently, Hershey announced a price increase across most of its lines.

It's happening as food companies face pressure to raise prices to cover their own fast-rising costs. On Friday, new data showed that food companies raised prices across 35 key product categories by 7.3% over the 12-week period ending Aug. 9, according AC Nielsen. The increases are "unprecedented," Sanford Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard wrote in a note to investors.

This month, McDonald's Corp. said it's testing less expensive ways to make its $1 double cheeseburger; already, some restaurants are selling the burger with one slice of cheese instead of two. And in a Thursday interview, Burger King Holdings Inc. CEO John Chidsey said the chain is testing a smaller Whopper Jr. hamburger as it tries to overcome high ingredient costs.

Bonnie - another reason to always read labels to look for ingredient changes. in addition, stick with foods with very short labels and real ingredients.

Emotional Shopping, Eating.

We cannot and should not go grocery shopping when feeling hungry or blue. We tend to make really unwise food choices. The quality of food goes down and consumption usually goes up.

Research shows that people often do get a high from shopping -- the brain releases chemicals such as dopamine or serotonin when a person is stimulated by discovering something new.

For the consumer, this serves as an important reminder that the highs from emotional shopping don't last very long -- but extra weight and credit-card bills do.

Mindful eating is the paradoxical concept that eating just a few mouthfuls can savor the experience. It sounds so simple, but it takes discipline and practice. It's a far cry from the mindless way many of us eat while walking, working or watching TV, stopping only when the plate is clean or the show is over.

The approach, which has roots in Buddhism, is being studied at several academic medical centers and the National Institutes of Health as a way to combat eating disorders.

One key aspect is to approach food nonjudgmentally. Many people bring a host of negative emotions to the table -- from guilt about blowing a diet to childhood fears of deprivation or wastefulness. Here are some tips:

· Assess how hungry you are.
· Eat slowly; savor your food.
· Take time to appreciate the food on your plate.
· Notice the colors and textures of your food.
· Put your fork down and breathe between bites.
· Notice taste satiety.
· Check back on your hunger level.
· Stop when you start to feel full.

Top Places for Prepared Food 2008

In an ever-growing world of convenience foods, there are unfortunately few players we can endorse. However, we came up with a short list (some of which are local only to Chicagoland) that meets our standards. Many have multiple locations. They are listed alphabetically:

Anton's Fruit Ranch
Chipotle Grill (tortilla-less Burrito Bowl is amazing)
Dominick's Finer Foods
Farmer's Markets
Foodstuffs
Fox & Obel
The Fresh Market
Garden Fresh Market
Goddess & Grocer
Jewel
Jimmy John's (any sandwich can be made bread less)
Rose's Bakery & Cafe (gluten-free)
Sunset Foods
Panera Bread
Target Supermarkets
Trader Joe's
Treasure Island
Whole Foods

If you have other suggestions, we'd love to hear them in the comment box below.

Study finds toxins in some herbal medicines

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

Traditional herbal supplements used by thousands of Americans may contain dangerously high levels of lead and other toxins, a study shows.

Nearly 21% of Ayurvedic medicines — plant-based products used in India for thousands of years to promote health — actually contain lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Arsenic can cause cancer. Lead and mercury can damage the kidneys and brain, especially in children, says study author Robert Saper of the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. More than 80 people have developed lead poisoning worldwide from Ayurvedic medicines since 1978, the study notes. Symptoms include fatigue, anemia and abdominal pain.

Although Ayurvedic medications are largely used by adults to treat problems ranging from indigestion to infertility, about 4% of the 193 products that Saper tested were labeled for use in children.

Saper and his colleagues purchased all of the medicines on the Internet. In a 2004 study, he also found lead, mercury and arsenic in 20% of Ayurvedic supplements sold in Boston-area stores. About 750,000 Americans have used Ayurvedic medicine, says Michael McGuffin of the American Herbal Products Association, whose members include the makers of traditional herbal products.

Manufacturers and the owners of websites mentioned in the article say they carefully test their products for safety. Peter Bowes, owner of Seattle-based Tattva's Herbs, says his company's own tests found much lower lead levels than those listed in the study.

McGuffin notes that it may be impossible to ensure that herbal products are 100% lead-free, because even fruits, vegetables and dairy products can be contaminated with lead, which can be found in soil or water.

McGuffin notes that government and professional agencies set widely different safety standards for lead, mercury and arsenic. While most of the products in Saper's article have lead levels that exceed California's standard, only two violate the World Health Organization's standard.

Saper says the Food and Drug Administration should set maximum daily dose limits for toxic metals in dietary supplements. Although the FDA currently doesn't specify how much lead is permitted in these products, it can pull products off the market if they're found to be unsafe. The FDA, for example, banned Ayurvedic products cited in Saper's 2004 study.

McGuffin says the government and industry should seriously consider such limits: "If we know what the target is, it makes it easier to hit the target."

Bonnie - one of the reasons I have never widely recommended herbs (and never Ayruvedic herbs), is because the difficulty in consistently assessing toxicity. Unless you are a company with the resources of a Metagenics or Nature's Way, who test every ounce of raw material that comes through its doors, you are going to get tainted raw material that falls through the cracks. Because with herbs, every harvest differs in terms of toxicity, many small herb companies do not have the lab resources to test every batch. I still believe that most do a diligent job of testing for heavy metals and toxins, but you run the risk of more exposure if you take a lot of herbal remedies.

One of the main reasons you utilize the services of a health professional, especially one with expertise in the use of dietary supplements, is that we do most of the work for you in terms of finding quality, safe, and effective dietary supplements that have been used and tested for decades.

MSG Use Is Linked to Obesity

Consumption of monosodium glutamate, or MSG, the widely used food additive, may increase the likelihood of being overweight, a new study says.

Researchers studied 752 men and women in three villages in northern and southern China where most people use little commercially processed food, but where about 80 percent of people add MSG in cooking.

After controlling for body mass index, smoking, physical activity and almost two dozen measures of daily nutrient intake, they found that the one-third of people who used the most MSG were almost three times as likely to be overweight — that is, to have a body mass index over 25 — as those who used none. On average, with each 0.04-ounce daily increase in MSG intake, B.M.I. went up by 0.61.

MSG makes food taste better, which may lead people to eat more, but the researchers controlled for total energy intake so it is unlikely that that explains the finding. The mechanism for the connection, published in the August issue of Obesity, remains unclear.

Bonnie - I'll tell you what the mechanism is. MSG tricks the neurotransmitters of your brain into thinking something tastes more flavorful than it really is. This overstimulation of your brain gives you the urge to eat more than you should, thus gaining weight. Don't you wonder why you can eat so much Chinese food and be ready to eat more very soon thereafter? Also, MSG is a single amino acid (glutamine) which throws off the balance of other amino acids. It also blocks B-6 and magnesium, thus causing fluid retention and possible blood sugar imbalance.

Introducing the Sleep Well Action Plan

Prescription sleep medications have become one of the fastest growing categories of prescription drug spending in recent years. It seems that medication is being considered as a first-line therapy, when it should be the last resort.

Sleep Well highlights how diet and nutrients are crucial to healthy sleep patterns. We provide effective and varied mind, body, and lifestyle techniques as well as describe the side effects associated with sleep medication.

Order it for 4.95 at nutritionalconcepts.com

Prostate cancer risk increased in obese men taking statins

Use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, especially long-term use, appears to raise the risk of prostate cancer among obese men, according to findings of a new study.

"Given the epidemic of obesity in the U.S. and the frequent use of statins, the positive association we observed raises substantial concern as to the safety of these widely prescribed agents," Dr. Janet L. Stanford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

In a population-based, case-control study, the researchers matched 1,001 men with prostate cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2005 with 942 age-matched cancer-free controls from King County, Washington.

No overall association was observed between the risk of prostate cancer and the current or past use of statin treatment. Duration of statin use was also not associated with prostate cancer risk.

"We also found no evidence that use of a statin was associated with risk of developing more aggressive subtypes of prostate caner," Stanford said in an interview with Reuters Health. "Overall we found no support for the current hypothesis that statin use may reduce risk of prostate cancer."

However, the results do suggest a significant increase in the risk of developing prostate cancer associated with current statin use and with longer durations of use among obese men (defined as a body mass index of 30 greater).

"Among obese men," Stanford told Reuters Health, "current use of a statin was associated with a 50 percent increase in risk of prostate cancer; and use for 5 or more years was associated with an 80 percent increase in risk of the disease; both of these risk estimates were statistically significant."

These findings warrant further investigation, she said.

Courtesy of Reuters

Bonnie - I'd say this is a very significant statistic given that the majority of the nation is overweight or obese.

F.D.A. Allows Irradiation of Some Produce

The government will allow food producers to zap fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce with enough radiation to kill micro-organisms like E. coli and salmonella that for decades have caused widespread illness among consumers. It is the first time the Food and Drug Administration has allowed any produce to be irradiated at levels needed to protect against illness.

Advocates for food safety condemned the agency’s decision and asserted that irradiation could lower nutritional value, create unsafe chemicals and ruin taste. “It’s a total cop-out,” said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch. “They don’t have the resources, the authority or the political will to really protect consumers from unsafe food.”

Dr. Laura Tarantino, director of the Office of Food Additive Safety at the F.D.A., said the agency had found no serious nutritional or safety changes associated with irradiation of spinach or lettuce. “These irradiated foods are not less safe than others,” Dr. Tarantino said, “and the doses are effective in reducing the level of disease-causing micro-organisms.”

The government has long allowed food processors to irradiate beef, eggs, poultry, oysters and spices, but the market for irradiated foods is tiny because the government also requires that these foods be labeled as irradiated, labels that scare away most consumers. “People think the product is radioactive,” said Harlan Clemmons, president of Sadex, a food irradiation company based in Sioux City, Iowa. The F.D.A. is considering a proposal to weaken or change this labeling requirement, a move that Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, opposes.

Critics say that not only does radiation make food less nutritious and potentially toxic but that the process also does not eliminate the risks of food-borne illnesses. An analysis by the Centers for Science in the Public Interest found that most outbreaks of illnesses associated with salad are caused by viruses, which are not affected by the doses of radiation approved by the F.D.A. Food-safety advocates, food producers and even farm groups agree that the government should mandate certain agricultural and processing practices that would limit the risk of all food-borne illnesses and increase the speed with which outbreaks are traced back to sources. “The agency is choosing to have a high-tech expensive solution to a problem that needs a more thorough approach and one that really starts on the farm,” Ms. Smith DeWaal of the science center said. Federal officials say they continue to study the science behind proposals to require good agricultural practices. In the meantime, irradiation could help, Dr. Tarantino of the F.D.A. said. “This is not a magic bullet,” she said. “It’s not a solution for everything. It’s one more option that people can use.”

Courtesy of NY Times

Steve - as long as irradiating food requires a label, the consumer has the choice. However, if the FDA relaxes the irradiation label, we need to be extremely vociferous in our opposition to it.

Just another reason to think organic and local!

MSG slows brain cell growth

A Calgary researcher is getting ready to publish a groundbreaking study that links a popular food additive to reduced growth in the brain cells of snails -- work that could have major implications for children's health.

Not bad for a teenager.

Michelle Ah-Seng is a 17-year-old high school student from Cochrane, just west of Calgary. She's also the lead researcher on a University of Calgary study that offers the first solid proof that high concentrations of MSG, an additive used to boost flavour in everything from fast food to canned soups, can stunt the growth of brain cells.

"It has been shown that (in a pregnant woman), MSG will cross through the placenta and can affect the fetus," said Ah-Seng.

"Fetuses are still developing, and their brain cells are starting to grow and starting to reach out to each other. If MSG has been inhibiting or stunting the growth, then the cells basically won't reach out to one another."

Ah-Seng is one of 22 Grade 11 students spending six weeks of their summer vacation in labs and clinics at the University of Calgary as part of the 2008 Heritage Youth Researcher Summer Program, funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Her project involved directly dosing brain cells culled from snails with a concentration of monosodium glutamate equal to what might commonly be found in human blood or cerebral spinal fluid after eating a meal containing the additive, such as a bag of chips. Not only did the MSG inhibit growth of the snail's brain cells, it also limited communication between them. The implications for human health aren't hard to infer.

"There's no difference between a snail brain cell and a rat or a human brain cell, only that there are fewer of them and (they're) larger," said Naweed Syed, Ah-Seng's supervisor and a neuroscientist with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary's faculty of medicine.

"This is the first unequivocal evidence, to my knowledge, that MSG has direct effect on neuronal ability. I think it's very exciting."

Ah-Seng points to previous studies that have examined the link between MSG exposure on rat fetuses and increased obesity and learning disabilities after birth, as well as links to neurogenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and ALS.

"It's very important, especially for pregnant women or people getting into their elder ages, to be aware of how much MSG (you're) consuming," she said.

The next step, said Syed, is to get the results published in a scientific journal. Ah-Seng plans to continue her work during evenings and weekends in her last year of high school to validate the findings.

"The stuff she has done (in six weeks), I would call it equivalent to a master's degree," said Syed. "The only thing I hope is that I never have to compete with this young mind. It's absolutely incredible."

Ah-Seng said she plans to curtail her MSG consumption as much as possible. "I'm sure to be more aware of how I consume different sorts of foods, because it's everywhere," she said. "You have to check the ingredients label. It's very important to be aware of how things will affect your health."

© The Edmonton Journal 2008

Steve - it takes the honesty and innocence of a teenager to tell the truth!

Organic food not more nutritional

One possible spanner in the works for the organic sector could be the results of a new study by the University of Copenhagen which revealed that organic foods contained no more nutrients than non-organic foods grown with the use of pesticides.

Researchers studied five different crops -- carrots, kale, mature peas, apples and potatoes -- which were cultivated both organically (without pesticides) and conventionally (with the use of pesticides) and found that there was no higher level of trace elements in the food grown organically.

Study leader Dr Susanne Bügel said: "No systematic differences between cultivation systems representing organic and conventional production methods were found across the five crops so the study does not support the belief that organically grown foodstuffs generally contain more major and trace elements than conventionally grown foodstuffs."

It should be noted that the study does not make conclusions about the comparative levels of pesticides or chemicals in conventionally and organically grown food or the health effects of consuming such chemicals.

So if organic foods aren't necessarily more nutritional, are they better for the environment?

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, traditional agriculture accounts for around 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions each year, and the nitrous oxide found in fertilizers contributes most to these emissions.

The Soil Association said that: "Overall, organic farming is better for tackling climate change than industrial agricultural methods. As well as lower average energy use, organic farming also avoids the very large nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer manufacture."

"Additionally, organic farming builds up soil carbon, removing it from the atmosphere. Organic farming also supports more local food marketing, reducing food miles."

Bonnie - aside from the fact that studies have shown organic to be more nutrient-dense than conventional, it is amazing that the study would not take into account the negative effects of pesticides in conventional produce. That alone makes organic a better choice regardless of nutrient content. See recent postings in our blog. How do you feel about organic versus conventional? Put in a comment below.

Organic Produce better For You

Taste, Nutrients Decline as Size of Crops Grow

Organic Food Better for the Heart

Reasons to Buy Organic

10,000 Toxic Chemicals need to be Retested for Human Safety

Powerful Antacid Drugs Raise Fracture Risk

New Canadian research shows that long-term use of proton pump inhibitors for acid reflux, peptic ulcers and related disorders elevates the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures.

This is now the third large study finding an increased risk of such fractures in people who use these medications. This latest study, reported in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found the longest period of time from starting the drugs to seeing problems emerge.

Physicians and patients may need to curb their enthusiasm for prescribing proton pump inhibitors, which have surged in popularity, experts said.

"Almost all of us gastroenterologists and internists have become complacent about the use of these medications," said Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, director of research at the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health, Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. "This makes us all take a step back and look at all the patients we have on these medications and ask whether they require still being on this medication, at this dosage, at this frequency. Can we make some alterations in their dosing regimen? Can we switch them? Do they need to be on anything at all at this point?"

PPIs are powerful antacid drugs prescribed for peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other related conditions. Brand names include Aciphex, Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec and Protonix. The drugs are often taken for indefinite periods of time.

The drugs work by inhibiting secretion of hydrochloric acid; this may affect calcium absorption in the small intestine.

The authors of this study, from University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, examined administrative claims data for 15,792 individuals over 50 who had had osteoporosis-related fractures of the hip, vertebra or wrist, then compared them with almost 50,000 controls.

Individuals who had used proton pump inhibitors for seven or more years had almost double the risk of an osteoporosis-related fracture. There was also a 62 percent increased risk of hip fracture after five or more years of using PPIs; the risk of hip fracture jumped to more than quadruple after seven or more years.

"Some people think, 'If I take PPIs, I can eat garbage all day long,' " Schnoll-Sussman said. "We need to tighten up on those patients. These medications are not without any kind of risk."

Bonnie - In this piece, I could not have said it better myself. How many more studies will it take for people to listen?

Wine can fight germs

University of Rochester researchers used polyphenols from fermented grape skins added to a petri dish teeming with strep, saw production of the germs reduced by 85%. Extracts from Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir worked the best.

Bonnie - this is one reason why many of the Fench wealthy and daily wine drinkers didn't get the plague!

Recall on Coleman Natural Beef

Whole Foods Market, which is voluntarily recalling more than 1 million pounds of ground beef because of a possible E. coli outbreak in fresh ground beef it sold from June 2 to Wednesday, August 6. The beef apparently came from Coleman Natural Beef's Nebraska Beef processing plant.

At this time, no Coleman Natural Beef fresh ground beef products from the Nebraska Beef processing facility are available in any Whole Foods Market stores.

Steve - we were out of town when this occurred. It is not surprising because Coleman sold their interests to a larger supplier who had a meat processing plant that had a long history of USDA violations.

Fruit, veggies lower men's cancer risk

Men who eat more fruit and vegetables have less risk of developing a type of cancer of the esophagus, a study by a Japanese medical team said Thursday.

The study spearheaded by Japan's health ministry monitored some 39,000 men aged 45 to 74 over about eight years, during which time 116 developed the type of cancer called esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Esophageal SCC is a common type of cancer among Japanese men, strongly linked to smoking and drinking alcohol, according to the study led by Shoichiro Tsugane, chief of the Epidemiology and Prevention Division at Japan's National Cancer Center.

The study divided men into three groups and found that those who ate the most fruit and vegetables had nearly half the risk of developing esophageal SCC compared with the group with the least vegetable-based diet.

"An increase in consumption of total fruit and vegetables by 100 grams (3.5 ounces) per day was associated with an 11 percent decrease in the incidence of esophageal SCC," the researchers said in a statement.

The study concluded that vegetables, especially the so-called cruciferous family of vegetables that includes radishes and cabbages, may help prevent esophageal SCC.

A diet rich in fruit and vegetables would lower the risk of developing this type of cancer to nearly one-third, even among men who smoke and drink, it said.

But the study warned that fruits and veggies were no substitute for the health benefits of quitting smoking or drinking.

A scientific study at Britain's Institute of Food Research showed last month that men who ate more broccoli, one of the cruciferous vegetables, reduced their risk of prostate cancer and other chronic diseases.

Steve - while it is no secret that fruits and veggies prevent cancer, it can't hurt to see it reaffirmed with continuous research.

Breakfast Eggs Keep Folks on Diet

Eating eggs may help overweight adults lose weight and feel more energetic, according to U.S. researchers.

Their two-month study of overweight or obese adults, ages 25 to 60, found that those who ate two eggs for breakfast as part of a calorie-reduced diet lost 65 percent more weight, had a 61 percent greater reduction in body mass index, and had higher energy levels than those who ate bagels for breakfast.

Blood levels of HDL ("good") and LDL ("bad") cholesterol, as well as triglycerides, remained the same in both groups.

"People have a hard time adhering to diets, and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan. Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet," lead researcher Nikhil V. Dhurandhar said in an Egg Nutrition news release. Dhurandhar is an associate professor in the laboratory of infection and obesity at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University system,

The study, funded by the industry-affiliated Egg Nutrition Center, was published online last week in the International Journal of Obesity.

Steve - please consider who funded the study. The only reason we published it is to reaffirm the importance of a balanced breakfast, especially one tha includes lean protein sources.

Gluten, dairy tested in autistic kids

Houston researchers are conducting a study to determine whether gluten and dairy products play a role in autistic behavior, as some parents suggest. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have begun a double-blind clinical study to look into the question. "There's a lot of misinformation, so that's why this study is so important," lead investigator Dr. Fernando Navarro said in a statement. "Hundreds and hundreds of parents think this works but we need serious evidence." Researchers are enrolling 38 autistic children ages 3 to 9, who will be taken off gluten -- a protein in wheat -- and dairy products before the four-week study. Half will then be given gluten/milk powder and half will be given a placebo powder. Casomorphin, a peptide in milk, and gliadomorphin, a peptide in gluten, are thought to affect behavior in these children, Navarro said. "A lot of children with autism have gastrointestinal problems such as constipation and diarrhea," co-investigator Katherine Loveland said. "There are neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors in the gut that correspond with those in the brain. There are some scientific reasons to think that some kids may benefit from this diet."

Stress can make allergies worse

Allergies act up when people are anxious and under stress, and those allergic reactions are worse the second day, according to a new study reported Thursday by an Ohio State University researcher known for her work on stress and health. In a presentation to the American Psychological Association, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser explained how stress affects the immune system and places people at risk for a host of diseases.

In an experiment conducted by Kiecolt-Glaser and colleagues, 28 men and women with a history of hay fever and seasonal allergies but not asthma were given a battery of skin tests and put through a number of stressful activities, such as giving a videotaped speech before a panel of experts and solving math problems without pen or paper. Basically, she said, "we bring people into the laboratory and stress them."The result: "Folks who are more anxious had bigger (allergic) responses during stress," she said. "Even the day after stress, for more anxious persons, you see persistence of allergic symptoms." And allergy medications, such as antihistamines, have little or no effect on the late-phase responses, she said.

In other stress research to be presented to the APA, Herbert Benson, a physician and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, on Friday will explain how repetitious exercises that clear the mind of everyday thoughts, such as yoga and prayer, evoke what he terms the "relaxation response" and reduce psychological distress. His new work compared 19 adults who regularly engaged in activities that evoked the relaxation response to 19 who did not and found, through blood tests, differences in their white cell activity, which affects stress levels.In a second part of the investigation, 20 people who hadn't tried the practice were assigned to do it for eight weeks. They developed the same changes as those who evoked the relaxation response regularly."This is firm proof that the mind can affect the body in a therapeutic way," Benson says. "By doing repetition and disregarding other thoughts, it brings about changes in the body."

Courtesy of USA Today

Bonnie - I wholeheartedly agree with this research. While the studies are small in stature, they reaffirm what I have believed for years. This is why finding a stress-relieving mechanism is an essential tool for anyone's wellness plan.

Antibiotics are unlikely to help sinusitis

Sinus infections are among the most common and aggravating medical conditions, diagnosed in around 31 million Americans each year. And for most patients, treatment has long included an antibiotic.

Now, medical experts are pushing for a less-aggressive approach. Around 21 percent of antibiotic prescriptions for adults in the U.S. are for sinusitis, even though studies show the drugs often do little or no good. Short-term sinusitis can be caused by either a bacterial infection, which may respond to treatment with antibiotics, or a viral infection, which doesn't. Doctors believe the overwhelming majority of cases begin as viral infections, and less than 2 percent of those turn into bacterial infections.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, which represents ear, nose and throat specialists, issued new guidelines last year for treating sinusitis. Among these: Doctors generally should wait 10 days before even considering an antibiotic. If the sinus sufferer is feeling better by then, the bug is almost surely a virus, and antibiotics would be of no use.

But if the problem lasts more than 10 days, chances are good it is bacterial. At this point, if the patient's illness is relatively mild, the guidelines leave it up to the doctor to decide between prescribing an antibiotic or monitoring the patient for as much as another week.

Some patients, and their doctors, might not be willing to wait. Keisha Herbin Smith knew what she wanted when she called her doctor's office last month about symptoms including congestion, a headache and a runny nose. Ms. Herbin Smith, a 30-year-old research coordinator from Woodbridge, Va., asked the nurse for an antibiotic to head off a full-blown sinus infection, so it wouldn't ruin a long-planned weekend at the beach. An antibiotic "just makes you feel better sooner," says Herbin Smith, who got her prescription and enjoyed her vacation, and later went to see her doctor when she returned.

The drugs have drawbacks. The analysis's lead author, Richard Rosenfeld, found that 25 percent of sinusitis patients who got antibiotics had side effect such as gastrointestinal problems, skin rashes or headaches. Widespread use of antibiotics is also blamed for the emergence of resistant bacteria that don't respond to traditional drugs.

Other medical authorities want to go even further than the academy's guidelines to minimize the use of antibiotics in treating sinusitis. An analysis by international researchers published in the Lancet medical journal in March said the drugs "are not justified even if a patient reports symptoms for longer than seven to 10 days." That's because the way doctors typically diagnose sinusitis, based on symptoms, isn't typically enough to determine which patients will benefit from antibiotics, the authors concluded.

Bonnie - we have discussed the overuse of antibiotics for years. Here is yet another case of it. Mayo Clinic research also determined that many sinus infections are fungal in nature (i.e. yeast overgrowth). Antibiotics actually worsen this situation making the fungi stronger and more antibiotic resistant.

Why doctors are wrong about solids

Babies who are exclusively breastfed for the first three months at least – and sometimes for the first 12 months – have better cognitive abilities and general intelligence by the time they are six. Compared with children who were fed solids early on, breastfed babies registered far higher scores for verbal IQ, performance IQ and general IQ when they were tested at six-and-a-half years. Researchers made the discovery when they assessed the cognitive development of 13,889 children who were exclusively breastfed for a prolonged period. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2008; 65: 578-84

FDA: BPA in Plastic Bottles Isn’t a Health Hazard

Courtesy of Wall Street Journal

Bisphenol A, a chemical that shows up in some baby bottles, food can linings and hard plastic water bottles, just got a vote of confidence from the FDA.

“FDA has concluded that an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses,” said an FDA draft assessment released Friday.

Earlier this year, a draft report from another federal agency concluded that “[T]he possibility that bisphenol A may alter human development cannot be dismissed.”

That was part of what prompted Wal-Mart, among others, to say it would stop selling baby bottles that contain the chemical. And California is now considering a bill that would ban the substance in food and drink containers made for infants.

The FDA assessment was released in advance of a September meeting where a panel of experts will discuss the subject.

In his weekly message posted on the FDA’s Web site, FDA Commish Andrew von Eschenbach wrote that “science creates these products and science must inform us of their risks. With regard to BPA thus far, the science FDA has reviewed does not justify recommending that anyone discontinue using these products.”

But environmental groups were critical of FDA’s analysis, which they argued were based on studies funded by industry. “It’s ironic FDA would choose to ignore dozens of studies funded by (the National Institutes of Health) — this country’s best scientists — and instead rely on flawed studies from industry,” Pete Myers, chief scientist for Environmental Health Sciences, told the AP.

Bonnie - I don't buy this assessment. Not one bit.

Blog on Vacation

The authors of this blog will be on vacation from August 9th to August 18th.

Dunkin' Donuts to offer healthier menu items

The menu items debuted August 6th and it is anything but healthy. Here are some lowlights:

• Egg White Veggie Flatbread Sandwich - 680 mg. sodium; Dextrose
• Egg White Turkey Flatbread Sandwich - 820 mg. sodium; Dextrose; Spice Extract (Monosodium Glutamate)
• Reduced Fat Blueberry Muffin - 33 grams sugar; High Fructose Corn Syrup; Corn Starch; Maltodextrin; Artificial Flavor; Propylene Glycol
• Reduced Calorie Berry Smoothie - 41 grams sugar; Modified Food Starch; Artificial Flavor; Caramel Color; Red 40; Blue 1; Yellow 5; Sucralose (Splenda); High Fructose Corn Syrup; Propylene Glycol
• Multigrain Bagel - 68 grams carbohydrate; High Fructose Corn Syrup

Yummy!

Monsanto Looks to Sell Dairy Hormone Business

After struggling to gain consumer acceptance, Monsanto on Wednesday announced that it would try to sell its business of producing an artificial growth hormone for dairy cows. The decision comes as more retailers, saying they are responding to consumer demand, are selling dairy products from cows not treated with the artificial hormone.

Concerns have been fueled by the refusal of many countries, including Canada and members of the European Union, to permit the use of the hormone. “I think they saw the handwriting on the wall and gave up,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington. “It’s a major victory for consumers.”

Bonnie - yes! yes! yes! A long, drawn-out victory for the consumer! Along with trans fats, this has been one of my longest public health battles of all. My colleague and a mentor, Dr. Sam Epstein of U of Chicago, must be very happy right now. He is been most outspoken over this substance for decades. Hats off to you Sam.

Now, the question becomes, who are they going to sell it to because who would want to buy it?

Up-To-The-Minute Notes on Gluten

1) Before taking a gluten test: you must eat gluten for two months. Two ingestions are needed daily for the test to be accurate.

2) According to the Cleveland Clinic, you cannot get a true gluten reading if you have been on an antibiotic any time one month prior to the test.

Oxygen therapies may ease headache pain

Two forms of oxygen therapy may help manage two types of debilitating headache pain, a new research review suggests.

In a review of nine small clinical trials, the researchers found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy showed promise for halting pain during migraine attacks. A similar treatment -- normobaric, or normal-pressure, oxygen therapy -- eased pain in people suffering from cluster headaches.

The findings are published in the Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a sealed, pressurized chamber. With normobaric oxygen therapy, patients breathe pure oxygen from a portable unit under normal conditions.

Normal-pressure oxygen has long been used for severe headache pain, and there is some evidence that hyperbaric oxygen could be helpful, but few controlled clinical trials have evaluated the therapies.

None of the two forms of oxygen therapy prevented future headache attacks, however, lead researcher Dr. Michael H. Bennett, of Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, Australia, told Reuters Health.

Bonnie - for those looking for another complementary, non-drug therapy, it is certainly worth a try.

Psychiatrists embrace pill power

Courtesy of Reuters

Psychiatrists in the United States are trading in the analysis couch for a prescription pad, according to a study released on Monday that found fewer psychiatrists offer psychotherapy.

The shift to briefer visits for medication management, reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, appears to be linked to better psychiatric drugs and pressure from managed care companies, which offer richer financial incentives for brief office visits.

"Psychiatrists get more for three, 15-minute medication management visits than for one 45 minute psychotherapy visit," said Dr. Ramin Mojtabai of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and formerly of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, where he did the research.

Various forms of psychotherapy, either alone or in combination with medications, are recommended to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses.

Yet Mojtabai and colleagues, who analyzed data from national surveys of office-based psychiatrist visits from 1996 through 2005, found a significant drop in the number of office-based psychiatrists providing psychotherapy.

He said just 29 percent of office-based visits to psychiatrists involved psychotherapy in 2004-5, down from 44 percent in 1996-97.

One major impact is that patients who need to receive psychotherapy must get it from other professionals, if they get it at all, Mojtabai said in a telephone interview.

That can result in disjointed service, in which a patient sees a psychologist or social worker for therapy and a psychiatrist or a general physician for drugs.

Bonnie - a sad state of affairs, but not surprising in this day and age.

Superfruits disturb the five-a-day balance

The popularity of exotic fruits has contributed to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, but the consequences of so-called superfruits muscling traditional products out of the diet is evident.

According to a new report from Datamonitor average consumption of fruit and veg has risen since the five-a-day campaign began. Parallel to this, however, has been a rise in interest in exotic or ‘super’ fruits that are high in antioxidants, like goji, pomegranate, and acai.

Datamonitor indicated that 18 per cent of customers were more inclined to substitute superfruits for ordinary fruit and veg. The perception is that, by dint of antioxiants alone, superfruits are better than traditional, every day fruits like apples.

But if consumers eat just superfruits, they risk missing out of the important nutrients that are found in other, more mundane produce. In fact, the five-a-day slogan is accompanied by advice to ensure a broad variety of different fruit and vegetables are consumed.

Moreover, consumers could assume that because they have eaten, say, goji berries today, a consumer does not need to eat the other four servings of fruit and veg.

Steve - consumers should treat superfruits as a supplement to their daily fruit and vegetable intake, not in place of.

MDs urged to quit prostate screens in elderly men

Courtesy of Associated Press

Doctors should stop routine prostate cancer screening of men over 75 because there is more evidence of harm than benefit, a federal task force advised Monday in a new blow to a much scrutinized medical test.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which made the recommendation, reported finding evidence that the benefits of treatment based on routine screening of this age group "are small to none." However, treatment often causes "moderate-to-substantial harms," including erectile dysfunction and bladder control and bowel problems, the task force said.

The new guidance is the first update by the task force on prostate cancer screening since 2002. The last report on the subject from this panel of experts, which sets the nation's primary care standards, concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend prostate screening for men of all ages.

In recent years, there has been a growing debate about the value of the somewhat imprecise PSA test to detect cancer, as well as the value of treating most prostate cancers. A number of experts contend patients are being overtreated.

Earlier this year, a study found that older men who already had early-stage prostate cancer were not taking a big risk by not treating it right away. The vast majority were alive 10 years later without significantly worrying symptoms or had died of other causes.

Prostate cancer treatments are tough, especially on older men. Some doctors instead recommend "watchful waiting" to monitor signs of the disease and treat only if they worsen, but smaller studies give conflicting views of the safety of that approach.

The new guidelines from the Preventive Services Task Force were published in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine.

Bonnie - it took them only 22 years to realize this.

The Overflowing American Dinner Plate

In 1970, the average American ate about 16.4 pounds of food a week, or 2.3 pounds daily. By 2006, the average intake grew by an additional 1.8 pounds a week.

Among other things, that's an extra half pound of fat weekly - mostly from oils and shortening. That doesn't count the fat in the extra quarter pound of meat Americans now eat every seven days. Those fats were somewhat offset by a steep drop in dairy consumption, the only major food group to have a decline, primarily in milk drinking. (But we do love our cheese. More and more of it.)

This portrait of the raw ingredients of the American diet is based on what the Agriculture Department calls "food availability" - the amount of food produced for the average American consumer. The data are adjusted for food losses (waste on farms; in processing and transportation; and in stores, restaurants and homes) to provide a close approximation of what individuals eat. (The most recent year for which data are available is 2006.)

The numbers don't reveal how much grain went into bread versus cookies, or how many chicken breasts became chicken nuggets. But the overall increase in eating does suggest a link with the rise in Americans' weight over the same period. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 15 percent of adults age 20 to 74 were obese by 1980. By 2007, that had more than doubled.

Courtesy of NY Times

Study Explains How Cranberries Prevent Urinary Infections

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute say that have solved the mystery of how cranberry juice prevents urinary tract infections.

Their study, published in the current issue of Colloids and Surfaces: B, shows that the juice changes the thermodynamic properties of bacteria in the urinary tract to form an energy barrier that prevents infections from developing.

The research team found that when bacteria with hair-like projections known as fimbriae, which is present on virulent bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, is exposed to even low concentrations of cranberry juice that energy levels increased to levels that made it difficult for the bacteria attach to a cell.

"Our results show that, at least for urinary tract infections, cranberry juice targets the right bacteria -- those that cause disease -- but has no effect on non-pathogenic organisms, suggesting that cranberry juice will not disrupt bacteria that are part of the normal flora in the gut," Terri Camesano, an associate professor of chemical engineering at WPI, said in a university news release. "We have also shown that this effect occurs at concentrations of cranberry juice that are comparable to levels we would expect to find in the urinary tract."

Camesano said that unpublished work also shows cranberry juice has potent effects on disease-causing bacteria, but that the effect is temporary. "This suggests that to realize the antibacterial benefits of cranberry, one must consume cranberry juice regularly, perhaps daily," she said.

Steve - a better option than cranberry juice (too much sugar) would be Solaray Cranactin capsules or liquid concentrate with stevia.

Flu jabs 'can't stop pneumonia'

One of the main benefits of flu jabs for the elderly - protection against pneumonia - may not exist, US scientists have claimed. They say the risk of pneumonia for older people stayed the same, whether they received the jab or not. The study, published in The Lancet journal, looked at pneumonia rates among thousands of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The latest research followed 3,500 people through three flu seasons to see if it made any difference, and while slightly fewer vaccinated patients were diagnosed with pneumonia, the difference was not statistically significant.