America's Healthiest Fast-Food Chains

Health magazine's choices for the healthy places to eat when you’re on the go
by Ross Weale

Frances Largeman-Roth discusses America’s healthiest fast-food chains on the Today show on March 25.




FRANCES LARGEMAN-ROTH

Frances Largeman-Roth, RD, is the senior food and nutrition editor at Health magazine, where she works on healthy recipes, food trends, weight-loss issues, and the latest nutrition research. She also writes a monthly food and health trend column called Hot Dish. Frances was previously part of the editorial team at the Discovery Health Channel and also held the post of managing editor at FoodFit.com. She has had the opportunity to work with top chefs and food personalities, putting a healthier spin on recipes from Jamie Oliver, Mark Bittman, Emily Luchetti, Gayle Gand, Rick Bayless, and Stephen Raichlen, among others. Frances is a member of the American Dietetic Association and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Frances earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and completed her dietetic internship at Columbia University in New York. She’s done several local and national radio and TV appearances, including the Today show, CBS's Early Show, and iVillage Live, and she has two satellite media tours under her belt. Frances has also used her food background to judge the AllRecipes.com annual recipe contest as well as two Food Network Challenges.

Born to Be Obese?

(HealthDay News) -- The brain circuitry that controls appetite might be wired differently in some people, and that could predispose them to obesity, California researchers suggest.

The study was conducted in rats, not humans, and yet it could ultimately lead to novel obesity treatments, said Philip Smith, director of the Office of Obesity Research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

"It is not just about drugs that modify short-term appetite," he said, "there may be drugs that stimulate development of the appropriate neural pathways. So, it is an exciting, but very early, time in this field."

The study was published in the February issue of Cell Metabolism.

Sebastien Bouret, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, and his colleagues examined neural circuits emanating from the appetite, hunger and body-weight control center of the brain -- the so-called arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH) -- in a series of rats bred to be either prone to, or resistant to, obesity.

The team found fewer neural connections projecting from the ARH in obesity-prone animals than in their leaner counterparts. Surprisingly, Bouret said, this deficiency developed very early in life, before the animals became obese, and appeared to extend into adulthood.

"Somehow, these animals are programmed to become obese," Bouret said. "The obesity is hard-wired into the brain."

When the researchers then looked at why the brains of obese rats differed from their normal-weight counterparts, they found that the neurons from obesity-prone animals were less responsive to leptin, a hormone that controls the development of these circuits, and which also signals the body's energy status and controls metabolic rate.

"This paper presumes to say, these animals must be leptin-resistant, and that is why the pathways are not developing," said Smith.

But that doesn't mean they are doomed to a life of severe obesity, said Dr. Barbara Kahn, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. How they live their lives also matters.

"It is important not to 'blame' the obese person or imply that he/she is responsible for being obese," Kahn noted. "Having said that, reasonable, healthy caloric restriction and a safe and sustainable program of physical activity can help limit weight gain and often bring about some degree of weight loss. In addition, healthy eating and regular exercise can reduce the complications of obesity such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

At the same time, she added, not everyone can wear a size 4.

"There is a certain aspect of genetics that sets somebody in a certain range of possible body weights, and then how that person lives his or her life will determine whether they are at the bottom or top of the range," she explained.

Human obesity has both genetic and environmental roots. The rats used in this study, like most humans, developed obesity when fed a high-energy diet. On a normal diet, they were heavier than normal rats, but not yet obese.

"This is quite an exciting paper," said Smith, "because it links more closely to human behavior than most rodent models we have seen."

The findings also suggest a possible therapeutic approach to combating human obesity. If drugs could be designed to influence the formation of neural circuits during development and targeted to at-risk pregnancies, Smith said, "there is a good likelihood we could have successful interventions that improve the health of the mother, and which have a major impact on disease risk for the infant, during pregnancy."

A related study from Boston University researchers in the same journal found that bulking up muscle mass can lead to a general metabolic improvement in obese individuals. "Interventions designed to increase skeletal muscle mass in at-risk human populations may prove to be critical weapons in the fight against obesity and obesity-related comorbidities, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension and cancer," an accompanying editorial stated.

More information
For more on obesity, visit the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Low-Carb Diet May Slow Prostate Tumor Growth

(HealthDay News) -- In mice, a low-carbohydrate diet slowed prostate tumor growth, possibly because fewer carbohydrates leads to a drop in insulin production, U.S. researchers say.

"This study showed that cutting carbohydrates may slow tumor growth, at least in mice. If this is ultimately confirmed in human clinical trials, it has huge implications for prostate cancer therapy through something that all of us can controls, our diets," lead researcher Dr. Stephen Freedland, a urologist at Duke University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.

Previous studies linked insulin and a related substance called insulin-like growth factor (IGF) with the growth of prostate tumors in mice. Freedland and his colleagues theorized that reducing levels of these substances might slow prostate tumor growth.

They compared tumor growth in mice eating either a low-carbohydrate diet; a low-fat but high-carbohydrate diet; or a Western diet high in fat and carbohydrates.

Mice fed the low-carbohydrate diet had the smallest tumor size and longest survival, the team found.

""Low-fat mice had shorter survival and large tumors , while mice on the Western diet had the worst survival and biggest tumors. In addition, though both the low-carb and low-fat mice had lower levels of insulin, only the low-carb mice had lower levels of the form of IGF capable of stimulating tumor growth," Freedland said.

The study is published in the Nov. 13 online edition of the journal Prostate.

Freedland is currently organizing a clinical trial to examine the impact of a low-carbohydrate diet on prostate tumor growth in men.

More information
The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer.

Integrated Medicine

Educational Programs

Food for the Aging Mind

Agricultural Research
08-27-07
Originally Published:20070801.

Scientists know that certain nutrients and other key chemical compounds are essential to human brain function. Serious deficiencies in some of these, such as vitamin B12 and iron, can lead to impaired cognitive function due to neurological, or nerve fiber, complications.

Cognition can be defined as the ability to use simple-to-complex information to meet the challenges of daily living.

So, could careful attention to diet help protect the aging brain from problems with nerve cell signals involved in memory and cognition? A clear-cut answer could greatly affect the 77 million baby boomers who are now facing retirement. Their independence, quality of life, and even economic status will largely be defined by their ability to traffic information signals as they age.

In researching the nutrition-brain connection, new technologies are being used, such as those that take images of the brain or actually count individual brain cells. Behavioral tests that measure motor and cognitive skills-or lack thereof-are also providing insights. Yet the science of nutrition and brain function is relatively new and evolving.

Agricultural Research Service scientists at several locations nationwide are contributing to a growing body of research that explores the effect of diet and nutrition on the brain and its function across the lifespan.

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Boosting Neuronal Function
The brain's billions of neurons "talk" to one another through chemical neurotransmitters that convey signals through neural pathways. These chemical transporters- which include norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine-are key to signal movement.

Although people naturally lose brain cells throughout their lives, the process of neuronal death does not necessarily accelerate with aging. "There is a lot of individual difference," says ARS neuroscientist James Joseph. "Loss of mental agility may be less due to loss of brain cells than to the cells' failure to communicate effectively."

Joseph heads the Neuroscience Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston. There, researchers are looking at the beneficial effects of certain dietary plant compounds to learn how they affect brain function.

"Vitamins and minerals in plant foods provide protective antioxidants," says Joseph. "But fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains contain thousands of other types of compounds that contribute significantly to the overall dietary intake of antioxidants.

"A partial measure of the antioxidant effect is called 'ORAC,' for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. ORAC scores are now showing up in charts and on some food and beverage packages. They may be helpful in choosing foods to include in your diet."

Perhaps there is no better place in which to gauge the power of antioxidants than between the minute connections of the nerve cells.

Bucking Long-Held Dogma
Eight years ago, Joseph and colleagues began publishing a series of studies, done in rodents, that shed light on the relationship between various diets and the mechanisms behind cognitive losses in specific neighborhoods of the aging brain.

Many in the series are groundbreaking in that they challenge the long-accepted belief that the central nervous system, which includes the brain, is not capable of regenerating itself. Other published studies in the series echo similar findings based on primate and human brain research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California. Scientists there, using new technologies, disputed the notion that the brain does not make new neurons-a process called "neurogenesis"-into old age: It does, but at a much slower rate.

One of the first of Joseph's studies, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed a protective effect of consuming antioxidants. Study rats were fed-from adulthood to middle age-vitamin E, strawberry extracts, or spinach extracts, all with similar ORAC values. Animals receiving the high-antioxidant diets did not experience the age-related cognitive performance losses seen in control rats fed standard chow.

A later study, also published in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed a reversal of functional loss among rats on special diets. Each of three groups of rats, equivalent in age to 63-year-old humans, was fed a different high-antioxidant extract. A control group was fed standard chow.

After 8 weeks-equivalent to about 10 years in humans-the rats' performance levels were measured.

The rats fed the spinach, strawberry, or blueberry extracts effectively reversed age-related deficits in neuronal and cognitive function. In addition, the blueberryfed group far outperformed their peers while traversing a rotating rod to test balance and coordination.

"Despite their status as 'senior citizens,' those rats showed remarkable stamina on neuromotor function tests," says psychologist and coauthor Barbara Shukitt-Hale, also with the Neuroscience Laboratory.

Examination of the brain tissue of those blueberry-fed rats showed much higher levels of dopamine than were found in the other groups. Dopamine has many functions within the brain. In particular, it can affect the way the brain controls movements.

"We suspected that the combined antioxidant potency of compounds in blueberry extract may have reduced inflammatory compounds in the brains of these older animals," says Joseph.

"Inflammation ordinarily contributes to neuronal and behavioral shortfalls during aging."
Tests have since shown that blueberry compounds cross the blood-brain barrier and localize in rodent brain tissue.

Hard News: Brain Plaques
Later, the lab's researchers published an Alzheimer's disease model study in Nutritional Neuroscience. They studied mice that carried a genetic mutation for promoting increased amounts of amyloid beta, a protein fragment found within the telltale neuritic plaque, or "hardening of the brain," seen in Alzheimer's disease.

Although the exact cause of Alzheimer's is not completely understood, experts have recently identified one mechanism involving the insufficient breakdown and recycling of amyloid protein in the brain. That mechanism is both genetic and physiological. In those individuals, normally harmless amyloid protein turns into fragments of amyloid beta, which build up as plaque in the brain rather than being escorted into cellular recycling. That action leads to cell death and weakened neuronal communication.

In the mouse study, beginning at age 4 months-early adulthood-half the brainplaqued group was fed a diet that included blueberry extract for 8 months. The other half was fed standard rat chow and so was a control group of mice that didn't carry the amyloid-plaque mutation.

At 12 months-early middle age-all groups were tested for their performance in a maze.

The brain-plaqued mice that were fed the blueberry extract performed as well as the healthy control mice and performed much better than their brain-plaqued peers fed standard chow.

A look at the plaqued brains of both the blueberry-fed and chow-fed mice after death revealed no difference in the number of brain plaques in either group. "Amyloid-beta-induced plaques are only one aspect of Alzheimer's disease," says Joseph. "But the fact that we saw a dietinduced behavioral difference, despite a similarity in plaque density in both these animal groups, is significant."

The team found increased activity of a family of enzymes called "kinases" in the brains of the amyloid-plaqued mice that were fed blueberry extract. Two kinases found in particular, ERK and PKC, are important in mediating cognitive function, such as converting short-term memory to long-term.

"These kinase molecules are involved in signaling pathways for learning and memory," says Joseph. "It could be that the increased kinase activity within the plaque-ridden brains of the blueberry-fed mice enhanced the signaling in certain receptors."

Brain Cells Are Born
Another HNRCA rat study looked at the aged brain's ability to change physiologically- a condition scientists refer to as "neuronal plasticity." In addition to cell division and differentiation, or "mission assignment," brain tissue undergoes many other changes throughout aging.

For example, a newborn sprouts billions of nerve cells while soaking up information from the environment. But lower levels of synapse growth continue in waves throughout the lifespan.

Littleused synapses are eliminated, while others are strengthened in a neuronal pruning process, of sorts.

Repair mechanisms involve neural immune cells, called "microglia," that seek to heal and protect injured brain tissue; enzymes that regulate safe chemical levels; and genes that are expressed in response to inflammation.

The neuronal-plasticity study investigated the physiological link between nutrition and the memory-control hippocampal area of the aged brain. That region, in the center of the brain, is essential for what's called "working" or "short-term" memory. It receives and processes data, and then, if needed, passes it on for storage.

Neurogenesis also plays a role in the formation of new memories. The capacity of the hippocampus to produce new neurons is thought to be greatly diminished during aging. But this study suggested that old rats fed blueberry extracts for a short time had increased neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus area of their brain's hippocampus. The dentate gyrus is one of the few regions of the brain where neurogenesis occurs.

"We found changes in the proliferation of neurons in blueberry-fed rats," said Gemma Casadesus, formerly a graduate student with the Neuroscience Laboratory and now with Case Western Reserve University. In maze tests, blueberry-fed aged lab rats showed improvement in cognition over chow-fed peers. "There was an association between the proliferation of neuronal precursor cells and better performance of spatial memory," she says.

The researchers don't yet know whether the cognitive improvements seen in the aged blueberry-fed rats translate to humans. "But it's an important step in learning about the brain's ability to rescue itself from age-associated declines in physiological function," Casadesus says.

Can You Hear Me Now?
Neurons that can't get their messages through signaling pathways are like cell phones that can't get their signals through to other cell phones. Why does this happen?

As the brain matures, cell division becomes largely restricted to specific regions of the brain, and brain cells tend to become more vulnerable to two partners in crime: oxidative stress and inflammation.

In the body, free radicals-weakened atoms formed during activities of daily living-are missing an electron and want to bond with neighboring biomolecules to stabilize. The problem is that unless neutralized, free radicals cause cellular damage known as "oxidative stress."

Cellular antioxidant defense systems counterbalance these rogue molecules, but they're not 100 percent effective-particularly as the body and brain mature. And the brain is thought to be especially vulnerable to oxidative stress.

"Weighing just 3 pounds, the brain accounts for only 2 percent of the body's total mass, yet it uses up to half of the body's total oxygen consumed during mental activity," says Joseph.

"Phytochemicals, together with essential nutrients in foods, provide a health-benefits cocktail of sorts. It is feasible that continued research in this area will point to dietary regimens that are effective in boosting neuronal function."

Inflammation is thought to be stoked by the overactivation of microglia-the neural immune cells mentioned earlier.

Microglia are usually dormant, but they migrate to the site of any brain injury. These sentries make up about 20 percent of the cell population in certain regions of the brain.

While seeking to protect and repair tissue, microglia cells produce and send out molecular stress signals, some by way of defensive cytokines, as a bugle call to other cells. Those signals begin a cascade of reactions, including the activation of genes that express proteins and other stress chemicals to help clear away cellular debris.

Microglial activation by amyloid beta is thought to be a key event in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. "When microglia are stuck in an always-on loop in response to plaque buildup in the brain, they become problematic in and of themselves," says Joseph.

This year, Francis Lau, a molecular biologist in the Neuroscience Laboratory, published a study that investigated whether blueberry extracts could have a preventive effect on inflammatory signals coming from activated microglia cells.

Microglial activation is considered the hallmark of inflammation in the central nervous system. For this study, Lau used a rodent microglial cell line that has previously served as a model to study plaqueinduced microglial activation.

Lau exposed groups of those test cells to various levels of blueberry extracts. He then challenged the cells with oxidative stress by exposing them to a toxin-lipopolysaccharide- that triggers secretion of inflammatory chemicals.

Neuroinflammation has been linked to the expression of genes that spew two inflammatory enzymes, iNOS and COX-2, and two cytokines, IL-1b and TNF-a.

Lau used real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) to find and measure expression of genes that produce iNOS and COX-2 in the stress-induced cell cultures. He found that the blueberry treatment significantly reduced that expression.

The blueberry extract also markedly lessened secretion of the two inflammatory cytokines. In fact, says Lau, "In cells exposed to the highest blueberry extract concentration, the amount of TNF-a cytokine found was next to nothing- essentially identical to that found in the control cells."

Looking to the Future
The food industry is now using a range of new and existing product ingredients to gain entrance into the emerging brainhealth market. Some are producing food labels that list ORAC values-for example, for use on containers of polyphenol-rich fruit juices and teas. So far, however, there has been no review conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on health benefits from eating berries.

Future studies at HNRCA will ideally include use of new diagnostic tools as well as human clinical trials. Neuroimaging equipment, for example, could be used to monitor the influence of various dietary factors on development of plaque within the human brain. Such studies aim to find the best dietary regimens to help adults preserve their mental capabilities while aging.-By Rosalie Marion Bliss, ARS.

This research is part of Human Nutrition, an ARS national program (#107) described on the World Wide Web at www. nps.ars.usda.gov.

James A. Joseph is with the USDA-ARS Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111; phone (617) 556-3178, fax (617) 556-3222, e-mail jim.joseph@ ars.usda.gov.

Third of Americans Have Alcohol Problems at Some Point

(HealthDay News) -- More than 30 percent of Americans say they have had problems with alcohol, a new study shows.

Among those with drinking problems, 17.8 percent say they have alcohol abuse problems, and 12.5 percent are alcohol-dependent, according to the report in the July issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

"At some time in a person's life, 30 percent of the population in the United States will develop alcohol dependence or alcohol abuse," said lead researcher Bridget F. Grant, chief of the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry at the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and alcoholism.

The hallmarks of alcohol abuse are interpersonal problems, financial problems and problems in daily living due to excessive drinking, Grant said. Alcohol dependence is more serious, she said. "That's where a person has a compulsion to drink as well as impaired control," she explained.
Grant noted that another major finding in the study is that there is an eight- to 10-year delay in treatment for alcohol problems after the problem starts. "That 10 years can be devastating," she said.

In addition, there is a big treatment gap, Grant said. "Only 24 percent of people who had alcohol dependence are ever treated," she said.

There are many new medications and behavioral treatments, Grant said. "But most people, including physicians, don't realize the new state-of-the-art treatment," she said. "Basically, we need a national campaign to educate physicians and lay people that there are treatments out there, and they are effective."

In the study, Grant's team analyzed data on 43,093 U.S. adults. The data were collected from interviews done between 2001 and 2002. In the interviews, people were asked about symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependence and diagnosed for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse disorder and other psychiatric problems.

In the year before the interview, 8.5 percent of adults reported having an alcohol use disorder, including 4.7 percent with alcohol abuse and 3.8 percent who were alcohol-dependent, Grant's group found.

In addition, of those who had alcohol dependence during their lifetime, only 24.1 percent were ever treated. Of those who were alcohol-dependent in the year before the study, only 12.1 percent received treatment during that time, the researchers found.

For those with alcohol problems, the prevalence is higher among men and Native Americans, Grant said. "Asians, Hispanics and blacks have a lower prevalence than whites," she added. "Alcohol abuse is greatest among those in the 30- to 60-year-old age range."

While these data remain mostly unchanged over the years, Grant is disappointed that the number of people being treated for alcohol problems remains the same. "More people need to be gotten into treatment and into treatment sooner," she said.

One expert thinks lack of awareness of alcohol problems and treatment options remains a serious problem.

"There is not so much new data here but rather an update on findings that we've known about for some time...," said Dr. James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina.

Most troubling is that only about 24 percent of those with alcohol dependence receive treatment, Garbutt noted. "The findings speak to the continued lack of adequate awareness and treatment of these disorders and the devastating consequences this has for public health," he said.

Another expert agreed that the gap in treatment is the most serious issue highlighted by the study.

"The most important finding of this study is the lack of progress in improving delivery of treatment to individuals with alcohol-use disorders," said Dr. Adam Bisaga, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and addiction psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, both in New York City.

"This occurs despite significant advances in research describing brain abnormalities contributing to the development and maintenance of alcoholism and availability of several medications and psychotherapies that are effective in reducing burden of these frequently occurring disorders," Bisaga said.

More information
For more information on alcohol abuse, visit the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Tips to Keeping the Barbecue Cancer-Free

(HealthDay News) -- The Memorial Day holiday is the traditional kick-off of the summer barbecue season in the United States, but research has shown that grilling can create cancer-causing compounds in meat, experts say.

Among the compounds are heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are created when heat acts on amino acids, and creatinine in animal muscle.

The longer the cooking time and the higher the heat, the more HCAs, say experts at the University of California, Davis, Cancer Center. That means that barbecuing produces the most HCAs, followed by pan-frying and broiling. Baking, poaching, stir-frying and stewing produce the least HCAs.

The UC Davis experts offer the following advice for limiting HCAs:

Before you barbecue meat, partially cook it in the microwave and then throw out the juices that collect in the cooking dish. Finish cooking the meat on the grill. Precooking a hamburger for a few minutes in the microwave reduces HCAs by up to 95 percent.

Flip hamburgers often. Doing so every minute reduces HCAs by up to 100 percent. This is likely because constant flipping keeps internal meat temperatures lower.

Marinate meat before grilling. This can greatly reduce HCAs. For example, one study found that chicken marinated for 40 minutes in a mixture of brown sugar, olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and salt cut HCAs by 92 percent to 99 percent.

Don't cook meat to "well done." Use a meat thermometer and cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165-180 degrees F, ground beef, pork and lamb to 160-170 degrees F, and beef steaks and roasts to 145-160 degrees F.

One or two days before you barbecue, eat cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts. These vegetables contain compounds that activate enzymes in the body that detoxify HCAs.

More information
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration offers outdoor eating and food safety tips.

Clarifying the Olive Oil Story?

Q: Clarifying the Olive Oil Story? I was disturbed to read your articles contending that some extra virgin olive oil sold in the U.S. may not even be olive oil. What is being done to stop this practice?

A: The three Q&As on extra virgin olive oil that were posted on this site in April, 2006, generated considerable interest. Since then, I've been told that I overemphasized the problem of adulterated oil from Europe being labeled "extra virgin" for sale in the United States, but, in fact, there is no way to determine the extent of this problem.

That it has existed to at least a small degree is beyond question. In a Clifton, New Jersey, warehouse raid in February, 2006, U.S. marshals seized 22,700 gallons of adulterated and misbranded "extra virgin olive oil" and "pomace olive oil" that consisted almost entirely of soybean oil or a "similar substance." Of course, 22,700 gallons is just a tiny fraction of the approximately 60-70 million gallons of olive oil imported into the United States each year.

I can find no authoritative source to confirm that adulteration of oils labeled "olive oil," with other kinds of vegetable oil is widespread in the U.S.

Mislabeling is unlikely to occur in other countries where extra virgin olive oils are tested for both acidity and taste according to standards established by the International Olive Oil Association (IOOC), an intergovernmental body to which the United States does not belong. The major source of information on the overall quality of extra virgin olive oils sold in this country is the North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA), a trade group that promotes imports.

NAOOA Executive Director Bob Bauer asserts that there is "no problem" with adulteration in imported oils and notes that the NAOOA tests imports, particularly big supermarket brands, regularly. Although the NAOOA runs the chemical tests for acidity required by the IOOC to determine if an oil is extra virgin, it has just started to submit samples for taste tests. This, Bauer tells me, is done at laboratories that adhere to IOOC standards.

So if the three previous Q&As gave the impression that most "olive oil," - labeled extra virgin or otherwise - sold in the United States has been reliably tested and shown to contain some other kind of vegetable oil, I must now state that this is not the case.

I may also have exaggerated the possibility that substandard olive oil is being labeled as "extra virgin." Paul Vossen, an olive oil authority at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County, says many oils sold in the U.S. and labeled as extra virgin would likely pass the chemical test for proper acidity, but would probably fail the taste test that the IOOC requires for certification as "extra virgin." But, Vossen acknowledges that without actually performing the tests, it is impossible to determine how common this problem is.

I will continue to seek out hard information on the quality of extra virgin olive oil sold in the United States. In the meantime, I continue to believe that when it comes to choosing extra virgin olive oil, one should be wary of extremely low prices. I suggest choosing olive oils certified by the IOOC, if you can find them, or by the California Olive Oil Council, which adheres to IOOC standards in certifying olive oils produced in California. If these are not available, I suggest seeking out certified organic extra virgin olive oils, and, although a higher price is no guarantee of quality, I will say that you are unlikely to find a good one for less than $9 for a 17-ounce bottle.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

Antibiotics in Poultry May Pose Risk to Humans

(HealthDay News) -- Could a turkey sandwich or a bowl of chicken soup be hazardous to your health?

Poultry has that potential, according to research that suggests people who eat drug-treated poultry may be at increased risk of developing antibiotic resistance.

Still, the findings are preliminary and shouldn't make anyone stop eating chicken or turkey, the study's lead investigator said.

"We don't want to suggest to anyone that they should alter their diet based on this," said Dr. Edward Belongia, director of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation's Epidemiology Research Center in Wisconsin.

But federal regulators should consider the results as they make rules about the kinds of drugs given to poultry, the investigator added.

At issue is the use of virginiamycin, an antibiotic used in farm animals to boost their growth.
The drug is banned in Europe, but farmers are allowed to use it in the United States.
Some studies have suggested that virginiamycin can cause germs in poultry to become super-powered, much as overuse of antibiotics in humans has made some people immune to certain drugs.

This phenomenon, known as drug resistance, happens when an antibiotic is used so often that germs mutate around it.

It's possible for drug resistance to be spread through food. "When we consume food with organisms that have resistance genes, these genes can be transferred to our natural organisms, causing them to become drug-resistant," explained Molly Marten, a clinical epidemiologist at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego who's familiar with the study findings.

Belongia and colleagues launched their study to see if people who ate chicken or turkey treated with antibiotics would themselves become resistant to an antibiotic known as quinupristin-dalfopristin, or Synercid.

Synercid treats disease caused by Enterococcus faecium, germs that are normally found in the gut and can cause disease in some cases.

The illnesses caused by these germs are especially common in hospitals among patients whose immune systems are weakened.

The study authors looked for signs of drug resistance by looking at enterococcus bacteria found in stool samples from 105 newly hospitalized patients and 65 healthy vegetarians, all living in the Midwest.

They also looked for signs of drug-resistance in enterococcus bacteria found in 77 samples of ordinary poultry from retail stores and 23 samples of poultry raised without antibiotics.
The findings of the study, which was funded by the federal government, are published in the Nov. 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The researchers said they did not find any sign that the humans had developed resistance to Synercid from eating poultry. However, they said that "plenty" of drug-resistant enterococcus was found in poultry treated with antibiotics, Belongia said.

Furthermore, 38 percent of the hospitalized patients had a genetic trait that might make it easier for them to develop resistance to Synercid; none of the vegetarians had the trait.
Patients who ate the most chicken seemed most susceptible to developing immunity to the drug, as did those who touched poultry.

Right now, this isn't a major problem because Synercid isn't used a great deal, Belongia said. That means germs haven't had a chance to become immune to it.

"But that could change," he said.

Belongia believes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should take the findings into account. In a written statement, Belongia said that antibiotics should not be used to promote growth in animals.

"This research makes a strong case for limiting the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals," added Marten, the epidemiologist. "By using antibiotics for strictly therapeutic purposes (such as treating an infection), rather than as a growth promoter, we will slow the emergence of drug-resistant organisms in human populations."

More information:
Learn more about drug resistance from the World Health Organization.

Diet and Exercise: The Real Fountains of Youth

You can take every pill and rue your parents for passing on their genes, but if you want to live long and well there are two things you must do -- eat right and exercise.

And while there are no guarantees in life, adopting these healthy pursuits can enhance your chances of vitality as you reach your 60s, 70s, 80s -- and beyond, experts say.
But a new report by the nonprofit Center for the Advancement of Health says that's not always easy for older people in a society that has built its streets for drivers, not walkers, and put convenience -- think fast foods -- for the young over possibilities for the old.

With 35 million Americans aged 65 and older -- a number expected to double during the next 25 years -- seniors and government must both make healthy choices, said Nancy Whitelaw, director of the National Council on the Aging's Center for Healthy Aging, which funded the report.

When it comes to nutrition and activity, "people know the message," she said. "The challenge is to make it operational in our daily lives."

People who get regular exercise, eat healthfully and avoid tobacco have a lower risk of chronic diseases that lead to premature death, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and certain cancers. They also have reduced rates of disability, better mental health and cognitive function, and lower health costs.

Conversely, individuals who are physically inactive are almost twice as likely to develop heart disease as active people, according to the report. Inactivity is also linked to the development of diabetes and colon cancer, and can result in loss of muscle strength and mass, which can lead to frailty and lethal falls.

Yet, approximately one-third of persons age 65 or older have not engaged in any leisure-time physical activity within the past month, including the majority of those over the age of 75, according to the study.

Just 30 minutes of activity five days a week can make the difference, said Whitelaw. The idea is to get your heart rate up for at least 20 minutes, and participate in activities that build balance, strength and flexibility. Recommended exercises include walking, swimming and bicycling. Doctors also endorse strength training two days per week.

But, the right kind of activity
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Magic Mushrooms Gave People Full Mystical Experience

Over 60% of volunteers in a rigorous trial funded by the American government said that one magic mushroom session gave them a full mystical experience and several months of happiness. Magic mushrooms are also known as psychedelic mushrooms.

The researchers, from John Hopkins University, Baltimore, wanted to find out what the neurological mechanisms and effects of psilocybin were. They were exploring psilocybin as a possible therapeutic compound. Psilocybin is the hallucinogenic agent found in magic mushrooms. The research was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Council on Spiritual Practices.

Trials have rarely been carried out on psilocybin. Mainly because magic mushrooms have been viewed as products used by people who take illegal narcotics for recreational use. Lead researcher, Prof. Roland Griffiths, said "More than 60 percent of the volunteers reported effects of their psilocybin session that met the criteria for a full mystical experience as measured by well-established psychological scales.”Most of the volunteers described their experience of taking the mushrooms as one of the most meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives. There were 36 volunteers, all of them college educated, averaging 46 years of age.

The trial was randomized and double-blinded. None of them had a history of drug abuse or mental illness.Most of them claim they became better people after the experience. Relatives and friends said they noticed that many of the participants were happier and kinder for several weeks. No brain damage or negative long-term side effects were detected among any of the volunteers. You can read about this study in the journal Psychopharmacology, 11 July issue.

On being asked whether these mushrooms may get us any nearer to God, Griffiths said "We know that there were brain changes that corresponded to a primary mystical experience. But that finding, as precise as it may get, will in no way inform us about the metaphysical question of the existence of a higher power."

It is important to bear in mind that the volunteers were supervised at all times, they were in a controlled environment and had people at hand to help them in case they experienced a ‘bad trip'. “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance”R. R. Griffiths,
Contact Information, W. A. Richards, U. McCann and R. Jesse
Psychopharmacology
Publisher: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
ISSN: 0033-3158 (Paper) 1432-2072 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5
Link to Abstract
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

The Damage GM Foods Can Do To Your Body

For a long while, I've been warning you about the blight of genetically modified (GM) crops on our world's food supply, always concerned about their effect on your bodies and health. Now, we have a clue about their potential dangers, based on a decade-long Australian study to create GM field peas that was recently abandoned.

Aussie researchers combined the gene from a protein equipped to kill pea weevils from beans with that of the pea, with disastrous results. When the protein merges with the pea, researchers theorize its structure changes, causing mice to contract allergic lung damage.

By the way, this isn't the first time such a problem has happened. An experiment in the 90s to create a Brazil nut hybrid was similarly dropped when the mutated nut triggered a strong negative reaction in people with allergies to them.

Luckily, this study – a rare glimpse into Frankenstein-like crop combinations gone bad -- was conducted by a national research organization. Had a private company like Monsanto been involved in this study, we would've never heard a thing about it.

Chances are very good you've eaten GM foods: At least seven out of 10 items at your neighborhood grocery store contain them. That said, there's some steps you can take that will help you steer clear of them.

New Scientist November 21, 2005