Scientists pinpoint compounds in cruciferous veg

It’s long been known that certain vegetables seem to help protect against certain cancers, but it wasn’t really known how that worked until a research report from UC Santa Barbara, which looked at how the compound sulforaphane works to reduce breast cancer in mammals, including humans. They found that the chemical, one of a class of healthful compounds called isothiocyanates, actually works like the anticancer drugs taxol and vincristine to inhibit cell division in cancerous cells. Researchers say broccoli and cauliflower could be used in addition to those drugs to make them more effective without increasing toxicity.

Keep exercising even when under the weather?

Winter is prime cold season, and most people give themselves a break from exercise when they aren’t feeling great. But exercise experts say there’s not a hard and fast rule on when to exercise when you aren’t feeling well. Little research has been done on the subject, but one study in which people were deliberately infected with the cold virus showed no decrease in lung capacity or exercise performance even though the exercisers with colds reported feeling fatigued. And some people who exercised reported they felt better afterward, even though exercising didn’t seem to affect the severity or duration of colds. So you should probably get out there and do something if you feel up to it; you’ll be glad you did.

Fish from China may be tainted with melamine

By now we all know about the tainted milk scandal in China that sickened tens of thousands of children, but now food safety experts are raising the alarm about potential contamination of fish from China with the same chemical. If true, that’s bad news, since China is the largest producer of farmed fish in the world, and $2 billion in seafood was imported from China by the United States in 2007. Industry experts in China say melamine is commonly used in fish production in China, and new research suggests that the compound is still in fish flesh when it is consumed. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require fish imports to be tested for melamine, even though its own research has found that fish fed melamine can have concentrations in their flesh up to 80 times the level considered safe for daily consumption.

Young diabetics often try harmful diets

Young people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes often have trouble with weight gain, which can in turn lead them to unhealthy dieting behaviors such as taking over-the-counter diet pills, according to a report from the journal Diabetes Care. In a study of more than 3,000 diabetic youths (average age 15), half of them were found to have tried dieting. While most of them used healthy measures to lose weight, a fair number (particularly girls) used fasting, vomiting, diet aids, laxatives or other unhealthy measures like skipping their insulin.

New Yorkers don’t like soda tax idea

Finally, a poll from Quinnipiac University found that the majority of New Yorkers don’t support a tax on soda that’s been proposed by governor David Paterson. Sixty percent of all voters said they wouldn’t favor a tax on non-diet sodas and sugary drinks, while 37 percent were in favor. Among diet soda drinkers, 58 percent were opposed while 39 percent favored the measure. Fifty three percent said they’d support higher taxes on people making more than $1 million a year. And while 88 percent of voters say the state is in a budget crisis, just 46 percent approve of how the governor is handling it.

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

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 and is filed under Beverages, Childhood obesity, Diabetes, Exercise and fitness, Food miscellaneous, Food safety, Foreign stories (non-U.S.), Kids and families, Nibbles: diet news shorts, Public policy, Soda pop, HFCS, and beverages. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.