Honey Alert Do not feed honey in any form to infants under 1 year of age. Serious food poisoning (infant botulism) may result
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By 1stAngel, on 9:20 pm
Vegetarians are 12 per cent less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters, according to new research published in the British Journal of Cancer
In a study of more than 61,000 people, Cancer Research UK scientists from Oxford followed meat eaters and vegetarians for over 12 years, during which 3,350 of the participants were diagnosed with cancer.
They found that the risk of being diagnosed with cancers of the stomach, bladder and blood* was lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters.
The most striking difference was in cancers of the blood including leukaemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The risk of these diseases was 45 per cent lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters.
Professor Tim Key, study author from the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, said: “Our large study looking at cancer risk in vegetarians found the likelihood of people developing some cancers is lower among vegetarians than among people who eat meat. In particular vegetarians were much less likely to develop cancers of the blood which include leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. More research is needed to substantiate these results and to look for reasons for the differences.”
The study looked at 20 different types of cancers. The differences in risks between vegetarians and meat eaters were independent of other lifestyle behaviours including smoking, alcohol intake and obesity which also affect the chance of developing cancer.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: “These interesting results add to the evidence that what we eat affects our chances of developing cancer. We know that eating a lot of red and processed meat increases the risk of stomach cancer. But the links between diet and cancer risk are complex and more research is needed to see how big a part diet plays and which specific dietary factors are most important.
“The relatively low number of vegetarians who developed cancer in this study supports Cancer Research UK’s advice that people should eat a healthy, balanced diet high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat, salt and red and processed meat.
“It’s understandable that what you eat can be linked to cancers of the digestive system, but more surprising to see an association between diet and leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma or multiple myeloma. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms behind this.”
By 1stAngel, on 9:16 pm
To coincide with this year’s National Vegetarian Week sponsored by Cauldron Foods, the Vegetarian Society is launching two separate competitions that will cater for young people of all ages.
National Vegetarian Week Student Meal Plan Competition 2010
For the older end of the age range entrants are asked to create a full weekend’s menu for a young vegetarian on a low budget. The closing date for entries is 20 July 2010. For more details and entry forms please visit www.youngveggie.org or e-mail education@vegsoc.org.
Jamie Johnson, Youth Education Officer at the Vegetarian Society said, “We’re looking for original, fully-costed plans that are both nutritious and excellent value for money. Our weekend starts on Saturday morning and ends on Sunday night, so just three meals a day plus drinks and snacks will do the trick. The best plans will be showcased on our website and, of course, there will be prizes.”
National Vegetarian Week poster competition 2010
At the younger end of the scale, is a competition to re-design the National Vegetarian Week poster. The template is available online and the competition is available to youngsters aged under 12.
Last year’s recipe competition attracted entries from across the country and was used in curriculum planning by many schools.
National Vegetarian Week sponsored by Cauldron Foods is from 24-30 May 2010. You don’t need to be veggie to enjoy National Vegetarian Week, but you do need to love flavoursome food. Veggie food comes in all shapes and sizes just like veggies themselves. So, be deliciously different – visit www.nationalvegetarianweek.org or call 0161 925 2000 for free school resource packs, Vegetarian Society and Cauldron food recipes, meal plans and information on how you can love the food you eat.
National Vegetarian Week is now in its eighteenth year and is an established date in the food calendar. This is the fourth year that Cauldron Foods has joined as headline sponsor. The Week gives schools, canteens, caterers, restaurants, libraries and individuals a reason to focus on increasing fruit and veg consumption, revamp their veggie options, launch new menus, look at the issues around food or simply try something different.
National Vegetarian Week is coordinated by the Vegetarian Society, an educational charity formed in 1847.
By 1stAngel, on 9:13 pm
 has always served wholesome, authentic and freshly baked breads and bagels. With spring on its way, the bakery chain will add even more freshness to its menu.
Starting March 10, the 292-unit bagel chain will meet customer demand for fresh, healthful foods, including a Trail Mix bagel made with whole grains and a new vegetarian panini called the Roasted Veggie Melt.
With the new panini, guests can eat their veggies — and love every minute of it. The new Veggie Melt is served on Bruegger’s freshly made Honey Wheat Bread, with roasted peppers, tomatoes, and onions. For those whose tastes stray to the heartier side, Bruegger’s is also featuring a Roast Beef and Veggie Melt.
“We love these new Panini Sandwiches,” says Chef Philip Smith, “they offer an amazing amount of flavor and are unlike anything else that we currently offer.”
The new Trail Mix bagel will be featured in Bruegger’s new “Baker’s Choice” pairings. Taking a cue from food and wine pairings popular at fine dining establishments, “head baker” Smith will bring his own creativity to the breakfast version – pairing bagel, cream cheese and coffee combinations. Throughout the year, Smith will also be polling the bakers at all of the local Bruegger’s locations to get their ideas for future pairings.
Bruegger’s new Trail Mix Bagel is paired for perfection with Bruegger’s new Strawberry Yogurt Cream Cheese Spread and Rain Forest Nut(R) coffee, a Fair Trade CertifiedTM blend from Green Mountain Coffee.
“We think these three items taste great together and want to recommend the great flavors to our guests,” says Smith.
By 1stAngel, on 8:09 am
 During the school day, children eat roughly one-third of their nutritional needs while at school. Besides lunch, breakfast and snacks may be served, providing ample opportunities for obesity-prevention strategies by offering more nutritious food. With economical constraints interfering with schools to provide children with increased amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, a study in the March/April issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior examines how farm-to-school programs have the potential to improve children’s diets by providing locally grown produce without burdening the school’s finances.
Researchers at the Michigan State University, Lansing, examined why farmers, school food service professionals (SFSP), and food distributors participate in farm-to-school programs and how they characterize the opportunities and challenges to school food procurement from local farmers. Researchers identified three major reasons why SFSP participate in farm-to-school programs including (1) ”The students like it,” (2) ”The price is right,” and (3) ”We’re helping our local farmer.”
There were three areas that emerged from analysis of the SFSP’s interviews about students/children participation in the farm-to-school programs which included: (1) quality, (2) influence of food service staff, and (3) relationships with farmers. The findings were best described by following two SFSP’s interviews:
“A lot of our teachers go to apple orchards so it was neat to have them served for lunch [ . . . ] so we had that link, cafeteria, classroom, field trip. I think they might have said something to the kids, and then the kids get a little more attention so they’re like huh, maybe I should eat this apple instead of just letting it sit on the tray.”
”The kids just love [farmer]. He’s one of the coolest guys in the world. And if we’re able to do that, it becomes a cool food and kids like cool foods, you know. They don’t want things that aren’t cool.”
A “trickle-down effect” was found for SFSP being proud to serve high-quality products that students were excited to eat.
The researchers found the farm-to-school programs benefited both the school and farmer. SFSP reported that the lower price for produce was attributed to a shortened supply chain. SFSP were able to buy produce that is not typically offered in school cafeterias such as asparagus, blue potatoes, Asian pears, etc.
Schools are an attractive market for the farmer because “perfect” products are not always needed. For example, a SFSP commented:
“I will take the outsize apples. [Farmer] will bring me bushels of apples, the tiny ones, and that’s great for our kindergarteners, our first-graders. We sort them out and the big ones children here [middle school] love so I think we’re a great market for off-size. We don’t need the perfect-sized apple. That’s great for retail, that’s what sells. But in schools, we can take the carrots that have ‘’s” [shape] in them because we’ll clean them, we’ll take the skin off, and then we’ll chop them up and it doesn’t matter to us. They’ll end up in the homemade soup that day, or on top of salad. So for us, we’re a good market and I don’t think farmers realize that.”
This research is being presented at a time when budgets are tight and there is a huge need for nutrition education in schools. The farm-to-school program may help to promote healthful eating and improve our school food programs.
Writing in the article, the authors state, “Relationships with farmers and vendor characteristics emerged as important variables that may have contributed to the benefits that these food service professionals expressed. This study suggests a relationship between locally grown food and potential benefits such as increased consumption of fruits and vegetables among children. However, much more research is needed to better understand how these and other variables influence children’s short and long-term dietary habits so that supportive programs and policies can be developed. This study also emphasizes the need for SFSPs to understand the advantages and disadvantages of buying locally grown food from different intermediaries as well as their own motivations (eg, improving children’s fruit and vegetable intake) and interest in local food procurement. More research is needed on how different types of intermediaries influence the benefits attributed to farm-to-school programs. Finally, whether buying locally grown food directly from a farmer or through a food distributor, connecting children and food service staff to the source of their food— where and how it was grown and who grew it—appears to be a key mediator between locally grown fruits and vegetables and children’s consumption of these food items. Therefore, as schools increasingly look to distributors for their local food needs, educational materials that retain or create a link from farms to schools will be important.”
By 1stAngel, on 8:15 pm
Study highlights:
- More than 100,000 cases of diabetes over the last decade were likely caused by the rise in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, sports drinks, and f
 ruit drinks since 2000.
- This rise in diabetes from consumption of sugary beverages has led to more cases of heart disease and higher healthcare costs.
American Heart Association meeting report:
SAN FRANCISCO, March 5, 2010 — More Americans now drink sugar-sweetened sodas, sport drinks and fruit drinks daily, and this increase in consumption has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
Using the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model, a well-established computer simulation model of the national population age 35 and older, researchers estimate that the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages between 1990 and 2000 contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of coronary heart disease (CHD), and 50,000 additional life-years burdened by coronary heart disease over the past decade.
 Sugar-sweetened soda, sport and fruit drinks (not 100 percent fruit juice) contain equivalent calories, ranging from 120 to 200 per drink, and thus play a role in the nation’s rising tide of obesity, researchers said. Previous research has linked daily consumption of these sugary beverages to an increased risk of diabetes, even apart from excessive weight gain.
“The CHD model allows us to incorporate data from other studies that demonstrate an association between daily consumption of sugared beverages and diabetes risk; we can then translate this information into estimates of the current diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can be attributed to the rise in consumption of these drinks,” said Litsa Lambrakos, M.D., study lead investigator and internal medicine resident at the University of California–San Francisco.
The prospective simulation model draws on data from major epidemiological studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, The Nurses Health Study and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Through the model, the researchers estimate the additional disease caused by the drinks has increased coronary heart disease healthcare costs by 300-550 million U.S. dollars between 2000-2010. This figure likely underestimates the true costs because it does not account for the increased costs associated with the treatment and care of patients with diabetes alone. Over the last decade, at least 6,000 excess deaths from any cause and 21,000 life-years lost can be attributed to the increase in sugar-sweetened drinks.
Health policy experts suggest curbing the consumption of sugared drinks through an excise tax of 1 cent per ounce of beverage, which would be expected to decrease consumption by 10 percent.
“If such a tax could curb the consumption of these drinks, the health benefits could be dramatic,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
The authors are currently examining the impact of various approaches to reducing consumption of sugary beverages. “We want to make the general public more aware of the adverse health outcomes of consuming these drinks over time,” Lambrakos said. “We want to help support disease prevention and curb consumption of these drinks that lead to poor health outcomes and increased healthcare costs for the average American.”
“The American Heart Association recommends a dietary pattern that is rich in fruit, vegetables, low-fat or fat free dairy products, high-fiber whole grains, lean meat, poultry and fish,” said Robert H. Eckel, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association, and professor of medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado Denver. “Always consider overall diet in the context of energy balance and make sure foods and drinks high in added sugars are not taking the place of foods with essential nutrients.”
The American Heart Association recommends an upper limit of half of the discretionary calorie allowance from added sugars, which for most American women is no more than 100 calories per day and for most American men is no more than 150 calories per day from added sugars. Sugar-sweetened beverages should be limited to 450 calories or less per week (36oz), based on a 2000 calorie per day diet.
Other co-authors are: Pamela Coxson, Ph.D. and Lee Goldman, M.D., M.P.H. Author disclosures are on the abstract.
By 1stAngel, on 8:12 pm
 Singaporeans consume around 275,000 tons of rice each year, which requires 688 billion liters of water to be produced – 2.5 times Singapore’s annual domestic water use.
Competition for water is getting fiercer and water supplies are dwindling, yet Singapore can contribute to securing its rice supply by joining the global community in helping farmers become water-wise.
This is the key message from Dr. Bas Bouman of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), who will present “Preparing Rice for the Global Water Crisis” as part of the Environment and Climate Change Seminar Series of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.
“To produce one bowl of rice it takes about 500 liters of water,” said Dr. Bouman.
“For a city like Singapore, the question is whether the 688 billion liters of water needed to produce the country’s rice will remain available.”
Worldwide, water for agriculture is becoming increasingly scarce as groundwater reserves drop, water quality declines because of pollution, irrigation systems malfunction, and competition from urban and industrial users increases.
Climate change will also reduce water availability in large parts of the world. And, by 2025, 15-20 million hectares of irrigated rice will suffer some degree of water scarcity.
 “Farmers can reduce the amount of water they use to grow rice by 10-30% if they adopt water-saving technologies, such as ‘alternate wetting and drying,’” said Dr. Bouman.
“The hardest part is to deliver these technologies to farmers. The public and private sector need to mobilize to promote and implement the existing water-saving technologies through policies, partnerships, and extension and education efforts.
“At the same time, investments in research to develop new water-saving technologies need to be increased so that the future of rice production is safeguarded.”
Dr. Bouman’s visit to Singapore is part of IRRI’s 50th anniversary activities, which included the launch of the IRRI Fund Singapore and a campaign to raise US$300 million to support rice research to help ensure that rice production is sustainable, to reduce poverty and hunger, and to improve the welfare of rice farmers and consumers.
By 1stAngel, on 8:05 pm
 Scientists, pea breeders and the food industry are collaborating to discover how taste and tenderness can be determined by biochemistry and genetics. They will work together to hone the make-up of a perfect pea.
In a £1.5M, 3.5-year project coordinated from the John Innes Centre, the project partners will find new ways to develop improved pea varieties for the high profit margin food market. They will also study the likely impact of greater uptake of legume farming on nitrogen fertiliser use.
“High quality peas will fetch a high price in the food market,” says Dr Claire Domoney from the John Innes Centre, an institute of the BBSRC. “If more farmers can be encouraged to grow these as a rotation crop we can reduce the carbon footprint of UK agriculture by reducing the amount of nitrogen fertiliser needed.”
Most crops require additional nitrogen. Fertilisers can increase yield by as much as 50%, but producing them uses more fossil fuels than any other agricultural process. They also cause pollution when they leach into groundwater and the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2, is produced by agriculture from the use of these fertilisers and this contributes about 12% of European greenhouse gas emissions.
Legumes such as peas are able to take nitrogen from the air and replenish soil levels. But farming legumes is not as popular as it could be. This is partly because profit margins in the easier to access feed market are relatively low. Food crops have a much higher value but quality must be very high. Sustaining quality will ensure better markets for farmers and so contribute positively to the environmental impact of agriculture.
This project will identify the determinants of quality in peas by studying the interaction of genetics and metabolites with important retail traits such as taste and tenderness. The aim is to develop superior lines that will create new markets, drive up profit margins for farmers and increase the uptake of legume farming. The research will also establish new methods for assessing maturity in the field, and may be applied to other food crops.
The LINK project is funded jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Defra. Partners include the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), the Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) and Campden BRI, with commercial input from Bird’s Eye, The Co-operative, Limagrain, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Premier Foods, Pinguin Foods and the Horticultural Development Company (HDC).
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