AJCN Aug, 2010 – SUMMARY – See this, longer synopses, and links to published articles further down this page at DETAILS at yourdesignmockup.com/personal-health.

Remarkably, AJCN is now doing part of my job for me. With each issue, they have “Highlights of Recent Research.” I will try to highlight and link them first also.
1. Editor’s Pick: Human study: genetic variations may greatly affect vitamin C absorption. – the notion that vitamin C affects chronic disease risk is supported by many epidemiologic studies.
2. Media Alert: Study: Folic acid intake may be excessive in some children and older individuals. Now that foods are fortified with folate, people taking a multivitamin are likely to be consuming a hazardous level of folate. Too much folate may increase your cancer risk.
3. Media Alert: Low vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12 status related to depression in older people.
4. Media Alert: Popular weight loss diets have different effects on micronutrient adequacy. Atkins, Zone, LEARN, and Ornish diets were likely to cause vitamin/mineral deficiencies. A moderately low carb diet with nutrient-dense foods was best.

ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS FROM NUTRITION INVESTIGATOR
FOR CHILDREN: 5. Infants at birth require daily DHA
6. Snacking reduces the risk of childhood obesity
7. Kids need to eat more dark green and yellow veggies and less fried food to develop healthy weight and bones
8. Rapid postnatal weight gain, rather than birth weight alone, leads to increased visceral fat in adult BMI.
9. Using food to regulate your child’s emotions makes them likely to become obese

FOR MATURE: 10. Fish oil prevents or delays age-related hearing loss

FOR OVERWEIGHT: 11. Severe obesity causes hedonic hunger but is eliminated by gastric bypass surgery

FOR ALL: 12. Experts still debate how to establish Daily Values
13. Meat eaters gain 4 more pounds after 5 years [compared with those on the No Four Diet] 14. Eating an egg every day does not raise cholesterol or contribute to diabetes [but does help your eyes and brain health]

AJCN Aug, 2010 -DETAILS

Remarkably, AJCN is now doing part of my job for me. With each issue, they highlight articles of most interest to the media.

Highlights of Recent Research
1. Editor’s Pick: Human study: genetic variations may greatly affect vitamin C absorption. – the notion that vitamin C affects chronic disease risk is supported by many epidemiologic studies. For example, in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Norfolk Study, a 20-µmol/L increase in plasma ascorbic acid was correlated with a highly significant 20% decrease in relative risk of all-cause mortality, and similar inverse associations were observed for cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease (6). The British Regional Heart Study supported these findings by showing a significant decrease in markers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in relation to high plasma vitamin C concentrations (7). Furthermore, there is extensive evidence from randomized controlled trials that vitamin C supplementation restores normal endothelial function and vasodilation in individuals with coronary risk factors or established coronary artery disease (8).

2. Media Alert: Study: Folic acid intake may be excessive in some children and older individuals. Now that foods are fortified with folate, people taking a multivitamin are likely to be consuming a hazardous level of folate. More than half (53%) of dietary supplement users exceeded the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for total folic acid .
How many people take a supplement including folate? 28% age 1-3y; 36% 4-8y. Too much folate may increase cancer risk – Unmetabolized serum folic acid (UMFA) has been detected in 40% of older adults. Given the possibility that excessive folic acid exposure may relate to cancer risk, monitoring of UMFA may be warranted.

3. Media Alert: Low vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12 status related to depression in older people. Patients with depression are reported to have lower concentrations of folate than patients with other psychiatric disorders and nonpsychiatric comparison groups. Low folate concentrations are also associated with poor antidepressant response. The study provides compelling evidence of the protective effects of dietary intake and supplementation of vitamin B-12 against depression. The study also shows that vitamin B-6 intake through supplementation, but not through diet, may also have this protective effect.

4. Media Alert: Popular weight loss diets have different effects on micronutrient adequacy. Dietary data were collected from women in the Atkins, Zone, LEARN, and Ornish diet groups. All were likely to cause vitamin/mineral deficiencies. A moderately low carb diet with nutrient-dense foods was best.

ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS FROM NUTRITION INVESTIGATOR
FOR CHILDREN: 5. Infants at birth require daily DHA – This can be provided from fish oil in breast milk from mother.
6. Snacking reduces risk of childhood obesity – Odds ratios for overweight or obesity and for abdominal obesity ranged from 0.63 to 0.40 and from 0.61 to 0.36 for 2 to 4 snacks/d, respectively. Reduced risks of overweight or obesity and abdominal obesity were associated with eating more snacks.

7. Kids need to eat more dark green and yellow veggies and less fried food to develop healthy weight and bones – Beginning at preschool age, diets rich in dark-green and deep-yellow vegetables and low in fried foods may lead to healthy fat and bone mass accrual in young children.

8. Rapid postnatal weight gain, rather than birth weight alone, leads to increased visceral fat in adult BMI.- So avoid rapid weight gain during infancy that multiplies belly fat cells.

9. Using food to regulate your child’s emotions makes them likely to become obese – Children of mothers who use food for emotion regulation consume more sweet palatable foods in the absence of hunger than do children of mothers who use this feeding practice infrequently. Emotional overeating behavior may occur in the context of negative mood in children whose mothers use food for emotion regulation purposes.

FOR MATURE: 10. Fish oil prevents or delays age-related hearing loss – Conclusions: There was an inverse association between higher intakes of long-chain n–3 PUFAs and regular weekly consumption of fish and hearing loss. Dietary intervention with n–3 PUFAs could prevent or delay the development of age-related hearing loss.

FOR OVERWEIGHT: 11. Severe obesity causes hedonic hunger but is eliminated by gastric bypass surgery – Hedonic hunger is compulsive eathing, the desire to eat even when not hungry.

FOR ALL: 12. Experts still debate how to establish Daily Values – The Daily Values are still debatable, the way they are chosen is still unsatisfactory – even to those who make the choices for the US government. The experiences described in this article can serve as a basis for future improvements in systematic reviews of nutrients and to better integrate systematic review into development of future nutrient reference values.

13. Meat eaters gain 4 more pounds after 5 years [compared with those on the No Four Diet]- A total of 103,455 men and 270,348 women aged 25–70 y were recruited between 1992 and 2000 in 10 European countries. An increase in meat intake of 250 g/d (eg, one steak at 450 kcal) would lead to a 2-kg higher weight gain after 5 y.

14. Eating an egg every day does not raise cholesterol or contribute to diabetes [but does help your eyes and brain health]

*To be added or removed from the nutrition research Email List . *To review the disclaimer. *To ask Roc a question.

-Roc, Nutrition Investigator

My philosophy of teaching is that you must say yes to life-to everything in life, even failures and disappointments. If you can’t say yes to life, don’t be a teacher. – “Margret Dietz”, book written by and available for purchase from freemane@beloit.edu