Discover the Science of Health
Scientists at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) Nutrition & Metabolism Center recently announced that they have developed a low-calorie, high-fiber, fruit-based vitamin and mineral nutrition bar called the CHORI-bar, which improves biomarkers linked to risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and associated decline in antioxidant defenses.
In the United States, 23.6 million children and adults — 7.8% of the population — have diabetes and one-third of U.S. adults are obese [1-2]. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as insulin resistance, a condition that precedes the development of type 2 diabetes. New research published in the Journal of Nutrition now suggests that blueberries can help improve insulin sensitivity in obese, non-diabetic and insulin-resistant people [3].
We’ve talked previously about the health benefits of coffee and the antioxidant compounds responsible for it’s bitterness. To add to the “perks” of coffee consumption, a recent report in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention suggests that caffeine protects against breast cancer in women that have a BRCA1 gene mutation [1].
I love my coffee. Who doesn’t want (or need for all you coffee addicts out there) a cup of freshly brewed java to start their day? However, the bitterness of coffee is something most of us could do without.
Now chemists in Germany and the U.S. say they have identified the chemicals that are largely responsible for coffee’s bitterness. Their study, one of the most detailed chemical analyses of coffee bitterness to date, was presented this week at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society [1].
In February 2007, researchers at Appalachian State University announced the results of a clinical study on the flavonoid quercetin at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, held in Charlotte, N.C. Their results showed that quercetin may help reduce illness and maintain mental performance in physcially stressed test subjects. I’ve written about the antioxidant quercetin in a previous article as an alternative to dichloroacetate (DCA), a chemotherapeutic agent that was recently shown to selectively inhibit cancer cell growth in lung, breast and brain tumor cells grown in culture and lung tumors grown in immunocompromisted rats.
