Stuff I’ve found digging around on the net … with my take on it ..c
Physical Education Key To Improving Health In Low-income Adolescents School-based physical education plays a key role in curbing obesity and improving fitness among adolescents from low-income communities, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley.
It’s what we all know: physical activity is good for your body and your mind – and it’s much more fun than sitting in the classroom all day.
TV Bombards Children With Commercials For High-fat And High-sugar Foods Childhood obesity in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions. With more than one fourth of advertising on daytime and prime time television devoted to foods and beverages and continuing questions about the role television plays in obesity, a study in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Digging for food&nutrition scoops on the dub-dub-dub … found these; someone might find them interesting :-)
The war on bottled water – Top 10 Food Trends: No. 4 – TIME
… In 1992’s The Player, Tim Robbins’ character, the consummate Hollywood insider, showed his sophistication at restaurants through his ability to differentiate among various kinds of bottled water. But today, that same Hollywood macher would never ask for anything but tap …
An excerpt from Time magazine’s Top 10 food trends from 2008. No 4 about bottled water … hmmm … the way things change :-)
Meat, Eggs, or Dairy Intake Not Consistently Linked to Risk for Breast Cancer
… Intakes of meat, eggs, or dairy products are not consistently linked to risks for breast cancer, according to the results of a prospective study reported ahead of print in the June 2 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition …
Deborah Coddington : Spoonful of meddling helps medicine go down – Politics – NZ Herald News
… It’s hard to argue with grieving parents. They make successful lobbyists. Crippled Children’s Society deserves applause for convincing the former Minister of Food Safety to change our bread standards by adding folic acid. Why? Because a few hundred women in the first months of pregnancy …
See my related comments (and links to others) on NZ proposal to fortify bread with folic acid …
A few weeks ago I discussed the pros and cons of folic acid (folate) fortification of bread. Now here’s one more possibly negative effect of fortifying our food with folic acid: if you have vitamin B12 deficiency, too much folate in your blood can make it worse.
Researchers at Tufts University analysed data from surveys before and after folic acid fortification in the USA. They found that people with low B12 and normal folate levels were one and a half times more likely to show cognitive impairment compared to people with normal B12 and folate levels. But people with low B12 and high folate were almost 5 times more likely to show cognitive impairment. These interactions between high folate and vitamin B12 were seen only in people surveyed after folic acid fortification in 1998, not before.
Vitamin B12 is important for healthy nerves, red blood cells and making DNA. Our body stores enough vitamin B12 to last 3-5 years so it takes a while for a deficiency shows up. When it does it leads to anaemia and cognitive impairment, and it is likely a risk factor for dementia.
Hydrochloric acid in our stomach releases vitamin B12 from foods. It then combines with a substance in our stomach called ‘intrinsic factor’ which allows it to be absorbed. Some older people have a mild inflammation of the stomach that reduces hydrochloric acid which means B12 isn’t so well absorbed. Vitamin B12 deficiency affects somewhere between 15-40% of people over 65 years of age.
So what can we do about this? Eat vitamin B12 rich foods (animal foods) such as meat, chicken, fish, milk, yoghurt and eggs.
This could make you a little wary of folic acid fortification but so long as you keep your vitamin B12 levels up, you should still be able to thrash the grandchildren at crosswords and cards!
