Small babies may gain weight fast later

Children who are born smaller than others at their same level of development are at risk for rapid weight and fat gains in adulthood. They’re also at greater risk for cardiovascular problems, according to research from Paris. Nearly 400 people who were born small were compared to others who weren’t small at ages 22 and 30. At age 22 the people who were smaller babies had smaller waist measurements and lower body mass indexes than the normal-weight babies, but by age 30 both groups had the same average waist measurement and the group born small put on weight more quickly than the people born at a normal weight. In fact, there were twice as many obese people among the born-small group, according to the report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Breakfast in the classroom a hit in New York

New York City schools make free breakfasts available to all students, but only about one in five take the meal (21 percent among low-income families), probably because of the stigma attached with eating breakfast in the cafeteria. A pilot program having kids eat breakfast in their classrooms deals with that problem and assures that more kids start the day with a healthy meal in their bellies. Kids seem to like the program and more are eating breakfast at school (though some admit to getting two breakfasts this way). The program will expand to 299 schools over the next couple of months.

Drink producers use loophole to pay lower tax

The Public Health Association in Australia is seeking to have a loophole closed that allows makers of some alcoholic beverages pay a lower tax. Makers of “alcopop,” usually hard liquor mixed with fruity flavorings and sometimes herbal supplements and marketed to younger drinkers, have been blending up their concoctions in the same manner that beer is made so they can pay a lower tax than the one levied on pre-mixed drinks. Advocates of closing the loophole say it may protect young people who will stop drinking so much if the beverages are more expensive, and that drinks should be taxed based on the amount of alcohol in them.

Saturated fat linked to more small intestine cancer

Most bowel cancers strike the large intestine (also known as the colon), but there are cancers of the small intestine as well, and researchers from the National Cancer Institute say these cancers may be linked to eating lots of saturated fat. Researchers looked at health data from half a million people involved in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study to determine if diet could play a role in the cancer. While eating more red meat or processed meat did not indicate a higher risk, those who got the most saturated fat had a 3.18-fold increase in risk of developing gastric carcinoid tumors compared to those who ate the least saturated fat.

Mouth bacteria makes foods tastier

Finally, we’ll guess that while you were enjoying Thanksgiving you weren’t thinking much about why the food you were eating tasted so good. Some food chemists, who get paid to wonder about such things, have found that mouth bacteria help us taste certain compounds in food and wine. Their report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is way too technical for me, but in a nutshell there are flavors that we’re only really able to taste because of the bacteria that live in our mouths. The researchers say this knowledge could make it possible to develop foods with more complex and longer lasting flavors, and there may be a treatment for bad breath in there somewhere.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

Subscribe to our RSS feed | Weekly e-mail updates | Follow us on Twitter

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 and is filed under Beverages, Breakfast and Obesity, Food miscellaneous, Foreign stories (non-U.S.), Legal and legislative, Nibbles: diet news shorts, Nutrition, Obesity research and studies. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.