News summary

Fast food chain pays out over trans fats

McDonald’s has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle an action brought against it to raise awareness of the dangers of trans fatty acids (TFAs) in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated cooking oil. The firm says it will donate $7 million to the American Heart Association and spend another $1.5 million on public education. Stephen Joseph, a lawyer who founded BanTransFats.com, sued McDonald’s over complaints that the firm did not properly inform the public that it had encountered delays in plans to reduce the level of trans fats in its cooking oils.
Reuters Health Online

Women “benefit from moderate wine drinking”

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm say women who have had a heart attack or heart surgery to treat blocked arteries and who drink alcohol in moderation are at less risk of heart disease or death than if they do not drink at all. Women with moderate alcohol intake show greater heart rate variability, says Professor Staffan Ahnve, who points out that a limited regular intake is most beneficial.
Reuters Health Online

Type of carbohydrate “is the key in weight gain”

New research shows that it is the type, rather than the amount, of carbohydrate eaten that determines weight gain. Dr Yunsheng Ma, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, says overweight people tend to eat more refined carbohydrates, for example white bread and pasta, which cause a rapid rise in blood sugar. Dr Ma and his colleagues point out that in the last 20 years the [US] rate of obesity has increased despite the fact that people are eating less fat. This coincides with an increase in the consumption of processed foods, which often have a high glycaemic index.
Reuters Health Online

Coffee appears to offer protection against cancer

A study in more than 90,000 Japanese shows that people who drink coffee frequently are at half the risk of liver cancer risk of those who never drink it. A research team led by Monami Inoue of the National Cancer Centre in Tokyo has found that the occurrence of liver cancer in those who never or “almost never” drink coffee is 547.2 cases per 100,000 people over 10 years, whereas in people who drank coffee daily there are 214.6 cases per 100,000. The reason for the effect is not clear, but the team notes that coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants which several animal studies suggest those have the potential to inhibit cancer in the liver.
CNN Online

Study finds benefits to organic vegetables

A study in rats by Danish scientists concludes that organically grown vegetables strengthen the immune systems and add more vitamin E to the bloodstream. Charlotte Lauridsen, of the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, says rats fed organic vegetables have less body fat, and are calmer, than their comratriots raised on non-organic food. She says it remains to be seen whether the results will be replicated in human subjects, but that she considers them to be a “milestone that take us a huge step forward in our research”.
ABC Online