A U.S. Department of Agriculture study found watermelons stored at room temperature have significantly more antioxidants and other nutrients than those kept in the refrigerator, WebMD reports.

To come to that conclusion, the researchers analyzed the carotenoid content in several varieties of watermelon stored for two weeks at three different temperatures.

Watermelon stored at 70 degrees had up to 40 percent higher levels of lycopene and as much as 139 percent more of beta carotene than refrigerated watermelon.

Another downside of refrigerating watermelon, the researchers say, has to do with its shelf life which is only a week if you keep it in the frig.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

Vegetables are actually quite versatile and fit into any healthy-eating plan. Enjoy them raw or cooked, on their own or in a casserole. Find out why you need to eat vegetables and the best ways to select, store and serve these healthy foods.

Why eat vegetables?

Nutritional powerhouses, vegetables have vitamins and minerals and are good sources of dietary fiber. They’re naturally low in fat, sodium and calories and contain no cholesterol.

Vegetables have phytochemicals — a group of compounds that may help prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. Many vegetables, such as broccoli, green peppers and spinach, are also good sources of antioxidants — substances that slow down oxidation, a natural process that leads to cell and tissue damage.

Enjoy a wide variety of vegetables because different types provide different nutrients. For example, asparagus is high in vitamin C and folate. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A. And chicory is a good source of calcium, magnesium, riboflavin and vitamin B-6. Eating a variety of colorful vegetables not only ensures that you get more nutrients, but also helps make your meals and snacks more interesting.

Tips for selecting, storing and serving vegetables

Here are suggestions to help you select the highest quality vegetables when you’re shopping, ways to store them once you get home, and tips for preparing and serving vegetables to enhance their flavor and retain their nutrients.

Selecting

Look for brightly colored vegetables. The best items have blemish-free surfaces and regular, characteristic shapes and sizes.
Sort through and discard any damaged items. Bruises and nicks can attract molds, which can lead to spoilage of an entire bag of vegetables. Leaves or greens should be crisp, not wilted.
Buy only the fresh vegetables you plan to eat within a few days. Long storage time reduces nutrient levels, appeal and taste.
Choose in-season vegetables. Typically, the closer you are to the growing season, the fresher your produce and the better it tastes.
Enjoy packaged vegetables when out of season. Frozen vegetables are low in sodium and sometimes offer more nutrients than do less-than-peak-condition fresh vegetables, as they’re processed quickly after picking. If you choose canned vegetables, look for those without added salt.
Storing

Store fresh vegetables according to their type. Place root vegetables, such as potatoes and yams, in a cool, dark place. Store other vegetables in the refrigerator crisper drawer.
Don’t wash vegetables before storing. Make sure all produce is dry before storing.
Throw away produce you’ve kept too long. Discard vegetables that are moldy or slimy, smell bad, or are past the “best if used by” date.
Serving

Wash vegetables thoroughly to remove dirt and pesticide residue before cooking. If possible, use a small scrub brush to help clean potatoes, cucumbers or other vegetables that have skin you eat.
Leave edible peels on vegetables whenever possible. The peels of many vegetables — especially potatoes — contain considerable amounts of nutrients and fiber.
Enjoy many vegetables raw. Keep bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery or other raw vegetables ready to eat in your refrigerator.
Use quick-cooking techniques. Stir-frying, steaming and microwaving are quick-cooking methods. Long exposure to higher temperatures leads to some loss of nutrients. Try to use as little water as possible when cooking vegetables, and consider reserving any cooking water — which contains nutrients — for adding to soups, stews or sauces.
Add more vegetables to your diet

Here are some easy ways to incorporate more vegetables into your diet:

Add grated raw vegetables to batters and doughs for quick breads, muffins and cookies.
Choose a wide variety of salad greens, including arugula, chicory, collard, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach and watercress.
Look for pasta made with vegetables, such as spinach or beets.
Stir-fry vegetables with tofu or just a small portion of poultry, seafood or meat.
Order a vegetarian pizza instead of a meat-based pizza.
Use vegetables as a base for or as added ingredients in soups.
Enrich or thicken soups and sauces with cooked and pureed vegetables in place of cream or whole milk.
Add grated raw carrot to lean ground beef or turkey when making meatloaf or meatballs.
Add chopped vegetables to your spaghetti sauce.
Enjoy vegetables as snacks by keeping them ready to eat in the refrigerator.
Many different kinds of vegetables fill the produce section of your grocery store, so don’t limit yourself to familiar favorites. Try some unusual vegetables, such as jicama, kohlrabi, okra or watercress. You may discover new favorites that add both interest and health benefits to your diet.

© 1998-2006 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). All rights reserved. A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. “Mayo,” “Mayo Clinic,” “MayoClinic.com,” “Mayo Clinic Health Information,” “Reliable information for a healthier life” and the triple-shield Mayo logo are trademarks of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Terms of use.

USA Today says the new drug is different from other products because it levels out the peaks and dips from the roller coaster of nicotine addiction.

In clinical trials, about 22 percent of patients who took Chantix in clinical trials were still not smoking after a year. Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science at the American Cancer Society, told USA Today that fewer than 5 percent of smokers who try to quit on their own can last a year without a cigarette.

The newspaper said Acomplia, a drug available in Europe for weight loss, also has shown potential for helping smokers quit but it has not been approved for use in the United States.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

However, the researchers said there’s not enough evidence to call processed meats a cause of stomach cancer, WebMD.com reported.

Led by Susanna Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, researchers reviewed 15 studies on stomach cancer and processed meats — bacon, sausage, hot dogs, salami, ham, and smoked or cured meat.

The studies conducted in Europe, North America and South America, and published between 1966 and 2006, involved thousands of people who reported how much processed meat they ate.

The reviewers found a higher intake of processed meats was associated with a greater risk of stomach cancer, WebMD.com said. The researchers reported the finding was most consistent for bacon consumption.

The review is detailed in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

Until recently, melatonin was thought to be exclusively produced by mammals but has recently been discovered in plants. It is thought to have antioxidant properties. Iriti’s study discovered high levels of melatonin in Nebbolo, Merlot, Cabernet Savignon, Sangiovesse and Croatina grape varieties.

Iriti’s team have also shown that melatonin content can be enhanced in grapes by treating vines with a plant vaccine Benzothiadiazole.

Richard Wurtman of the brain and cognitive science department at MIT is unconvinced, however, and believes further research is needed to determine whether the compounds discovered are melatonin, or something very similar.

Souce:  Society of Chemical Industry

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that drinking a standardized flavanol-rich cocoa beverage improved several measures of blood vessel function, especially among older study participants. Flavanols are the natural compounds in cocoa that are increasingly being linked to promising circulatory benefits – including improved blood flow and a reduced tendency to form damaging clots.

In the current study, 15 healthy young adults under age 50, and 19 healthy adults over age 50 drank the specially-made flavanol rich cocoa beverage daily for four to six days. The researchers tracked changes in the function of their peripheral arteries using several measures, including peripheral arterial tonometry a standard method for evaluating the health of an individual’s blood vessels. At the study’s completion, significant improvements in vessel function following the consumption of flavanol rich cocoa were seen in both young and older adults. While aging has previously been shown to lead to a deterioration of blood vessel function, this study is the first to demonstrate that the consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa can improve this age-related loss of vessel function in older adults. In agreement with previous studies using this same cocoa, these improvements in both young and older adults appear to be linked to the ability of cocoa flavanols to influence the body’s production of nitric oxide, a key regulator of blood vessel tone.

Compared to the younger subjects, the vessel responses of the older men and women were significantly more pronounced after drinking the flavanol-rich cocoa beverage — suggesting that the consumption of this flavanol rich cocoa offers a dietary approach for maintaining endothelial vessel function, and indicates the possibility that this cocoa could be useful for improving endothelial function in our aging population.

“Aging is typically associated with deterioration in vessel health, specifically related to function of the critical inner lining, or endothelium,” said co-author Naomi Fisher, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. “Our findings demonstrate that consumption of this flavanol-rich cocoa can improve the function of blood vessels in a healthy elderly population. More research is needed to see if older adults with cardiovascular disease can also experience these improvements following consumption of this cocoa, but these initial findings certainly offer great promise. These findings have great potential to impact the health of our aging population.”

Partially supported by a grant from Mars, Incorporated, this new research builds on a growing body of evidence demonstrating the potential of cocoa flavanols to improve blood flow (or the body’s circulation), and perhaps in turn impact long term cardiovascular health. Working in collaboration with premier research institutions throughout the world, Mars has been a leader in unlocking the nutritional and medical potential of the cocoa bean — with more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and 80 patents related to flavanols.

“The body of evidence on blood flow-related benefits of cocoa flavanols is impressive,” said Harold Schmitz, PhD, Chief Science Officer at Mars, Incorporated. “For the past 15 years, Mars researchers and scientists around the world have been studying cocoa flavanols. This latest research provides additional support for the concept that cocoa flavanols could help reduce the risk, or even offer future treatment potential, for cardiovascular diseases including heart disease and stroke.”

In an accompanying editorial, hypertension experts Claudio Ferri, Davide Grassi and Guido Grassi underscored the importance of these research findings, suggesting that the “introduction of cocoa could result in cardiovascular prevention,” yet cautioned that not all chocolate offers the benefit of cocoa flavanols. The researchers stated that, “… the flavanol-rich cocoa products used in experimental studies, and even present in some commercially available flavanol-rich chocolate bars that have been tested in controlled short-lasting studies, should not be confused with a number of commercially available snacks that contains many calories but are low in natural cocoa and flavanols.”

To help maximize the amount of cocoa flavanols in chocolate, scientists at Mars, Incorporated developed a patented process called Cocoapro® that helps retain consistent levels of cocoa flavanols that occur naturally in cocoa beans. Mars products that are made with the Cocoapro process include Dove® Dark Chocolate and CocoaVia®, a line of heart-healthy snacks that are guaranteed to contain at least 100 mg of cocoa flavanols per serving. Cocoapro cocoa is the most studied cocoa in the world in terms of health impact.

Source: Weber Shandwick Worldwide  

“With the millions of athletes worldwide, this truly is a profound breakthrough and extremely significant for all individuals interested in muscle cramp and pain relief with a natural approach. These findings indicate that Pycnogenol can play an important role in sports by improving blood flow to the muscles and hastening post-exercise recovery,” said Dr. Peter Rohdewald, a lead researcher of the study.

Researchers at L’Aquila University in Italy and at the University of Würzburg in Germany studied the effects of Pycnogenol on venous disorders and cramping in two separate studies.

The first study consisted of 66 participants who had experienced normal cramping at some point, had venous insufficiency, or were athletes who suffer from exercise-induced cramping. The first two weeks of the study was an observation period and participants did not supplement with Pycnogenol. Symptoms related to venous disorders, and the number of cramping episodes each participant experienced over the two observation weeks was recorded.

Next, all the participants were given 200 mg of Pycnogenol once a day for four weeks. After the treatment phase, participants’ symptoms and cramping episodes were recorded for one week without any Pycnogenol supplementation.

The researchers found a significant decrease in the number of cramps the participants experienced while supplementing with Pycnogenol. Participants who had experienced normal cramping had a 25 percent reduction in the number of cramps experienced while taking Pycnogenol.

Participants with venous insufficiency experienced a 40 percent reduction in the number of cramps, and athletes with frequent cramping experienced a 13 percent reduction in the number of cramps while on Pycnogenol.

The second study involved 47 participants with diabetic microangiopathy (a disorder of the smallest veins commonly associated with diabetes), or intermittent claudication (a blood vessel disease that causes the legs to easily cramp).This study also used a two-week pre-trial observation period followed by a week of supplementing with Pycnogenol (200 mg per day for one week), followed by a week of observation without Pycnogenol supplementation.

Patients with diabetic microangiopathy had a 20.8 percent reduction in pain, while participants with claudication experienced a 21 percent decrease in the amount of pain experienced while supplementing with Pycnogenol. Results indicated participants who took placebo experienced no decrease in pain.

Cramps are a common problem for people of all ages, ranging to the extreme fit and healthy to people who suffer from health problems. Previously, magnesium was hailed as the natural approach for relieving muscle cramps, however studies continue to show magnesium to be inefficient for reducing muscle cramps.

“Pycnogenol improves the blood supply to muscle tissue creating a relief effect on muscle cramping and pain. Poor circulation in the muscle is known to cause cramps and Pycnogenol improved the cramping in patients due to a stimulation of blood flow to their muscle tissue. Nitric oxide (NO) a blood gas, is well known to enhance blood flow and Pycnogenol may be influencing the activity of NO,” said Rohdewald. “The insufficient production of NO is the common denominator responsible for impaired blood flow in vascular disease.”

Strenuous exercise is known to involve muscle damage which may be followed by symptoms of inflammation. In separate studies published this year and in 2004 and 2005, Pycnogenol demonstrated its anti-inflammatory effects in clinical trials for asthma, dysmenorrhea and osteoarthritis.

Source: MWW Group www.pycnogenol.com.

The findings of television’s effects on physical activity are the first to be based on objective measurements using pedometers, rather than the study subjects’ memories of their physical activity, say the researchers. The study will be published online by the American Journal of Public Health on July 27 and later in the journal’s September 2006 issue.

“Clearly the more time a person spends watching television the less time they have to be physically active, and in many lower income communities, other factors might have influenced the study participants’ decisions to spend time watching television,” said the paper’s lead author, Gary Bennett, PhD, of Dana-Farber’s Center for Community-Based Research and the Harvard School of Public Health.

These factors may include fear of street crime and poor maintenance of parks and playground equipment, which create barriers to outdoor activities. Older people were particularly prone to staying indoors and watching television, which reflects their increasing isolation in society today, Bennett said.

The study involved 486 low-income housing residents in Boston. The study participants tended to be black or Hispanic, older, and female. Two-thirds were overweight or obese, 37 percent had less than a high-school education.

To avoid the potential inaccuracies associated with self-reported physical activity, the researchers arranged to have the study participants wear pedometers during their waking hours to count the number of steps they took every day for five days. The pedometers were “blinded” to prevent the participants from knowing how many steps they had taken and possibly altering their normal patterns of activity. The participants also reported the number of hours they watched television.

Results showed that the participants watched an average of 3.6 hours a day of television, with some reporting spending no time watching television while others watched as much as 14.5 hours on weekdays and 19 hours on weekend days.

Researchers have estimated that 10,000 steps a day measured with a pedometer roughly approximates recommended daily activity levels. In the current study, on an average day, each hour of television viewing was associated with 144 fewer steps walked – or an average of 520 fewer steps a day for those who spent 3.6 hours in front of the television.

In addition, for each hour of television they watched, participants were 16 percent less likely to achieve the 10,000-step-per-day goal. For those who watched the 3.6-hour-a-day mean value, their odds of walking 10,000 steps a day were 47 percent less than non-television-watchers.

The study findings represent “a piece of a larger puzzle for us – how do we help people to become more active?” said Bennett. Simply telling people not to watch television “doesn’t work terribly well,” he explained, and often leads to substituting other sedentary activities like reading and computer use.

Going forward, “we need to do a better job of understanding the factors that lead people to be physically active,” Bennett said. “This is an important area of research, particularly because the impact of physical inactivity disproportionately affects the health of lower income Americans.”

Source: Dana Farber Institute 

“From previous studies we know that regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing colon cancer, but until now few studies have looked at the survival effect of exercise on people who have been treated for disease,” says the study’s lead author, Jeffrey Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber. “While our work found a significant benefit for patients who exercise, it’s important that exercise be seen as a supplement to, not a replacement for, standard therapies.”

The two studies used different sets of data to arrive at their shared conclusion. One study involved 832 patients with stage III colon cancer (involving the lymph nodes around the tumor but with no signs of having spread outside the area) who had received surgery and follow-up chemotherapy as part of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) national clinical trial. Data on participants’ recreational physical activities and health status was collected about six months after the completion of therapy.

Researchers found that patients who engaged in moderate physical activity – the equivalent of walking six or more hours a week at an average pace of 2-2.9 miles per hour – were 47 percent more likely to be alive and free of disease than those who were less physically active.

The other study involved 573 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, a project organized by Brigham and Women’s Hospital which tracks the health of 121,700 female registered nurses by questionnaires mailed every two years. The nurses included in the current study had undergone surgery intended to cure stage I to III cancer at least six months earlier.

The results of this study mirrored those of the CALGB-based study. Additionally, patients who increased their physical activity from levels before diagnosis had an approximately 50 percent lower chance of dying, from colon cancer or any other cause, than those who remained physically inactive.

“The fact that two different sets of data have yielded such similar results encourages us about the validity of our findings,” Meyerhardt remarks. “Although the data from the CALGB study did not include data on the participants’ exercise levels prior to diagnosis with colon cancer, we do have that information for those in the nurses study. From that data, it appears that the amount of exercise prior to diagnosis doesn’t affect the outcome of treatment. What matters is exercising after standard therapy has been completed.”

Scientists do not have a definite physiological explanation for the benefit of exercise for colon cancer survivors, but they speculate it may be tied to a reduction in the body’s production of insulin and a similar compound, insulin-like growth factor, which fuel the growth of some cancer cells.

“To reduce the chances that colon cancer will return after treatment, as well as for overall health reasons, regular exercise is a good option for survivors to consider,” says Meyerhardt, who also is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “As with any exercise program, people should check with their doctor before increasing their degree of physical activity.”

Source: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

In patients with RP, rod photoreceptors die from a mutation, but it has not been known why cone photoreceptors die. After rods die, the level of oxygen in the retina goes up, and this work shows that it is the high oxygen that gradually kills the cones. Oxygen damage is also called “oxidative damage” and can be reduced by antioxidants. So for the first time, scientists have a treatment target in patients with RP, added Campochiaro. His team’s findings appeared in the July online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Retinas in all mammals, from mouse to man, are made up of light-sensitive cells known as cones and rods, named for their shapes, which convert light into nerve signals that are then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Cones are needed to see colors and make vision possible in bright light, whereas the far more numerous rods permit sight in low light. The human retina contains approximately 125 million rod cells and six million cone cells. In diseases like RP and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), these cells die off and eventually lead to blindness (in the case of RP) or legal blindness (in the case of AMD).

In earlier studies exposing mice to pure oxygen, the Hopkins scientists found that high levels of oxygen in the retina killed both rods and cones, said Campochiaro. “This was the clue that the high oxygen levels that occur naturally in the retina after rods die was the suspect regarding cone cell death. To test this, we used antioxidants, which protect cells from oxygen damage, and since they allowed many more cones to survive, it proves that the suspect is guilty.”

In this mouse model of retinal degeneration, the rods have completely degenerated by the 18th day of age, and then the cones start to degenerate, with 85 percent of them dying off by the time the mice are 35 days old. Campochiaro and his team injected vitamin E, vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid or an antioxidant similar to superoxide dismutase between the 18th and 35th day. In mice that received vitamin E or alpha-lipoic acid, 40 percent of the cones survived, about twice as many as in the control group or the groups treated with the other antioxidants, which had no identifiable effect.

“What’s clear is the link between oxygen and photoreceptor damage, as well as the potential of antioxidant treatment,” Campochiaro said. “These experiments suggest that an optimized regimen of antioxidants may help to protect patients with retinitis pigmentosa.”

Campochiaro emphasized that even if found valuable, antioxidant treatment of RP, a group of inherited blinding diseases with complex genetic roots, would not cure the disease. But the salvaging of cones, which are concentrated in the retina’s macula and are critical to central vision, could serve as a “maintenance therapy,” he said. “That alone would be an enormous help.”

RP affects only about 100,000 people in the United States. But the oxygen damage has also been implicated in other more pervasive eye diseases, like AMD and cataracts.

Antioxidants naturally occur in some fruits and vegetables, and are available as supplements, but Campochiaro said it remains unclear whether the amounts of antioxidants consumed in foods provided any benefit to people with these types of vision impairments.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions