Study: No heart benefit from fish oil
Millions of Americans choke down large fish oil supplements every day, coughing up more than $1 billion a year, based on the belief that the pills can help prevent heart disease.
Now a large review of research shows no overall heart benefit to taking Omega-3 fatty acid, or fish oil supplements.
There was a small reduced risk for heart-related deaths, but researchers said it wasn’t significant.
Other forms of heart disease prevention have been well documented.
“Eating healthfully, exercising is really so much more important than supplement,” said Elisabetta Politi, a registered dietitian with the Duke Diet and Fitness center.
According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, nearly a quarter of all U.S. adults take fish oil pills.
Fish oil helps colorectal cancer patients
Colorectal cancer patients like patients with many other types of malignancies experience a great deal of inflammation and oxidative stress induced by chemotherapy and radiotherapy or the disease itself. A new study in Nutrition and Cancer suggests that taking a moderate amount of fish oil each day during chemotherapy can improve their nutritional status indicators. It is a suggestion because the trial study is small.
Juliana de Aguiar Pastore Silvaa of Departamet of Nutrition, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and colleagues conducted the study and found colorectal cancer patients taking 2 grams of fish oil per day during chemotherapy maintained baseline weight and improved the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio, which are desirable.
The clinical trial involved 23 patients with colorectal cancer in two groups were assigned to taking either a placebo or 2 grams of fish oil containing 600 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for 9 weeks during which all patients were using chemotherapy.
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New study shows benefits of fish oil lacking
Fish oil supplements are taken by millions of American every day for better heart health and to improve memory. It’s one of the most popular supplements taken in the United States. Results from a new study may change that. Findings of the study show taking fish oil supplements may not protect against heart disease after all.
Latest Fish oil study
The new study on the benefits of fish oil on heart health pooled results of 20 studies that involved almost 70,000 heart patients. Results of the study were published in the September 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Findings showed that adding omega-3 to the diet of these heart patients did not appear to lower the chance of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, nor did it lessen the risk of death. However, the omega-3 taken in this study did not all come fish oil.
Algal DHA omega-3 boosts reading capability in underperforming children
Daily supplementation of algal DHA omega-3 may boost a child’s reading ability and improve behaviour, research finds.
Published in the PloS journal, researchers from Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention found DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) supplementation a “safe and effective way to improve reading and behaviour in healthy but underperforming children”.
The independent study was funded by health and nutrition giant DSM Nutritional Products and used the firm’s algal DHA omega-3 oil in the research.
Findings showed that supplementation has a robust impact in aiding ‘underperforming’ children – those with a reading ability two years behind the expected level (≤20th centile) and lower at ≤10th centile.
Children in the ≤20th centile sub-group taking DHA saw an 8 month improvement in reading age and those in the ≤10th centile group gained 1.9 months.
Self-motivation superior to pleasing others in battle to maintain healthy weight
The Department of Human Nutrition study of 1600 New Zealand women aged between 40 and 50 is the first nationwide research of its kind anywhere. The researchers set out to examine the link between the degree of autonomy and self-determination motivating women’s eating behaviour and their body weight. The participants were asked to rate the degree to which each different style of motivation for eating healthily applied to them. They were also surveyed on their specific food and eating habits. Study co-author Dr Caroline Horwath says that more self-determined and autonomous reasons for eating healthily included enjoying creating healthy meals or viewing eating healthily as integral to one’s lifestyle or values. More ‘controlled’ motivation, on the other hand, involved reasons such as being nagged to eat healthily or feeling expected to do so. Dr Horwath says that after adjusting for other potential explanatory factors, the results clearly showed that the more self-determined or autonomous a woman’s style of motivation for eating healthily, the lower her BMI.
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-self-motivation-superior-healthy-weight.html#jCp
Choline intake linked to lethal prostate cancer risk
A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating too much choline-rich foods such as meat, milk and eggs may increase risk of lethal prostate cancer. It is a possibility, but the study is not a trial and a causal relationship has not been established.
Erin L. Richman of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA and colleagues conducted the study and found men in the highest quintile of choline intake were at 70 percent increased risk of lethal prostate cancer, compared with those in the lowest quintile.
Meat, milk and eggs, which are high in choline, have been associated with risk of lethal prostate cancer although not all studies are consistent. The current study was intended to examine whether intake of choline is associated with the risk of lethal prostate cancer.
For the study, the researchers analysed data from 47,896 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study to determine whether an association exists between intake of choline and risk of lethal prostate cancer. They also evaluated how the intake of choline affects the survival rate among 4,282 men with diagnosed nonmetastatic prostate cancer during the follow-up.
Want cheap nutritious food?
Does a healthy diet cost more than a junk-food diet in America?
That depends on whom you ask, how you measure food and, most important, if you know how to cook.
Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a new analysis indicating that fruits, vegetables, grains and low-fat milk tend to be less expensive by weight and serving size than fatty, sugary foods and meat, fish and poultry.
The takeaway message, according to its authors: Healthful foods actually cost less than foods we are supposed to restrict.
This ran counter to many studies that have measured the cost of “good” and “bad” foods by calorie and concluded that nutrient-poor foods generally cost less.
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Ginseng doesn’t bake favourably
Ginseng powder used in bread and cookie formulations adds nutritional punch but significantly reduces end product size and volumes, a study finds.
Ginseng disrupts end quality in bread and cookies
Ginseng is a plant native to Asia and has been used widely across the region in traditional medicines for many years. While extensive research is underway into a range of therapeutic benefits, the extract is most commonly associated with enhancing stamina and reducing feelings of fatigue and physical stress.
Research published in Food Science Biotechnology has looked into using ginseng powder in hard-wheat flour and soft-wheat flour bread and cookie formulations, analysing impact on end quality.
Findings showed the inclusion of ginseng powder leads to a reduction in overall quality with significantly smaller loaf sizes and cookie widths.
“A decrease in the loaf volume of the bread sample baked from the hard-wheat flour/ginseng powder blend could be explained by lower amounts of wheat gluten in the bread formulation, resulting in a weaker gluten matrix with the reduced ability to retain gases created during fermentation,” researchers said.
