Today's NewsBites

The US leads the world in introducing lowsodium products— with food giant Kraft recently announcing it will cut the sodium in all its North American products by an average 10% over the next few years. But low-sodium foods aren’t high on consumers’ shopping lists, according to a new report from Packaged Facts market research. From 2005 to 2009, US companies launched 762 food products or non-alcoholic beverages with a reducedor no-sodium claim—five times the number of the next-highest nation, Japan.…

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When dieting to lose weight — like 1 in 3 Americans — you're not just cutting out calories; you're also omitting vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that tag along with those calories. To test these nutritional effects of popular weight-loss plans, Stanford University scientists randomly assigned 300 overweight or obese women to one of four diets: Atkins, Zone, LEARN and Ornish. By repeatedly quizzing the women on what they'd actually eaten, researchers were able to calculate their vitamin and nutrient intake from food. While cutting an average of 500 daily calories, overall the women also reduced their intake of 12 of the 17 nutrients measured, putting some at risk of deficiency. The reduction in dietary vitamin E was most pronounced, with more than 65% of the dieters not getting enough. One surprise: Women on the Zone diet actually boosted their intake of vitamins A, E, C and K, while seeing no dip in other nutrients. Researchers said that finding demonstrated the benefits of a regimen, like the Zone plan, that encourages moderate but not extreme carbohydrate reductions — cutting back on added sugars and refined grains while keeping beans, greens and other veggies. — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition…

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Current Articles

In light of a recent review questioning the link between saturated-fat intake and heart disease (May 2010 Healthlet-ter), another new meta-analysis suggests the key to heart health may be what you eat instead of saturated fats. If you replace saturated fats such as butter with processed carbohy-drates, you may be no better off. But replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats such as those in liquid vegetable oils reduced the risk of a coronary heart disease-related event by 19%.…

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After age 70, a few extra pounds may not be so bad. New Australian research adds to the evidence suggesting that the rules about weight and health are different for older people— and that Body Mass Index (BMI) isn’t a perfect tool. The study of 9,240 men and women ages 70 to 75 found that being overweight was associated with a 13% lower risk of mortality from all causes. Normal-weight and obese participants had a similar, slightly higher risk of death from all causes.…

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Anew meta-analysis suggests that the connections between saturated fat intake, blood cholesterol and heart disease may be more complicated than scientists have thought. Previous studies have demonstrated that saturated fat can raise blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol, and high LDL is a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. So it seems logical that saturated fat consumption would likewise be linked to heart disease. But the review of 21 studies totaling 347,747 people failed to find a significant association between saturated fat intake and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke or cardiovascular disease (CVD).…

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Ask Tufts Experts

 

I have osteoporosis, and my doctor wants me to take 1,000 IU daily of vitamin D, along with my other daily vitamins, which also contain vitamin D. I calculate that this would bring my daily vitamin D total to 2,300 IU. Is this safe?

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After getting so many different answers, can you please tell me how bad is aspartame? I like chewing gum sweetened with it—two or three pieces a day— and people tell me I should cut down because aspartame is bad.

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Do clementines have the same nutritive value as oranges?

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High-protein diets make kidneys work harder—an issue for the more than 20 million Americans who have chronic kidney disease but don’t know it.

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