News summary

Manufacturer cuts salt in cereals

Kellogg’s has cut the levels of salt in its Corn Flakes, Frosties and Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes by 25 per cent. The new formulations will be available this week. A 30g portion of Corn Flakes will now contain 0.55g of salt – around nine per cent of the guideline daily amount for an adult. The same sized serving of Frosties provides 0.35g of salt. However, Penelope Gilbert, a nutritionist at Consensus Action on Salt and Health, says, “It is important to remember that even after this reduction Kellogg’s Corn Flakes will still be classed as a product that contains ‘a lot’ of salt, and a 50g bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes will contain around 0.9g of salt – more than a bag of crisps. We now look forward to seeing further reductions in the salt content of Corn Flakes, and also across the board in other Kellogg’s products.”
The Daily Telegraph

Eating disorder centre for Wales

The first residential centre in Wales for the treatment of people with eating disorders is to open later this year. The Welsh Centre for Eating Disorders – to be established by Trevillian Care Services – will take NHS referrals from GPs and consultant psychiatrists in Wales. The centre, at Rhymney near Cardiff, will comprise facilities with high quality social, educational and therapeutic facilities for 26 inpatients. Outpatient and day services will be also be provided. The centre’s director of operations, Keith Woodall, says, “The centre will answer a desperate need in Wales. We know that patients and their families are urgently seeking help and this facility will become a centre of excellence to provide that help.”
AR Communications press release

Warning about associated allergies

People with peanut allergy may also be allergic to lupin flour, which is increasingly being added to human food products, according scientists at the Royal Free Hospital. Dr Michael Radcliffe points out that in 2002, lupin was the fourth most frequent cause of severe food-associated anaphylaxis reported to the French Allergy Vigilance Network. His team suggests that, because there appear to be cross-reactions between peanuts and lupin flour, anyone with a peanut allergy should avoid products containing lupin until they can be specifically tested.
Reuters Health Online

Diet and breast cancer

Diets with a high glycaemic index may increase the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women who have used hormone replacement therapy, according to US researchers. Dr Stephanie Navarro Silvera, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says, “Given evidence of a positive association between [high insulin levels] and breast cancer risk, we felt it conceivable that this reflects an underlying association with high glycaemic index diets.”
Reuters Health Online

Vitamin “reduces period symptoms”

Vitamin E can significantly reduce the severity and duration of period pain, according to research in Iran. A team at Tarbait Modarres University in Iran, says in a group of girls aged 15 to 17 those took vitamin E reported the greatest reduction in the intensity of pain, and that this was reflected in a significant reduction in the number of painkillers they took. These girls also suffered less blood loss than those in the placebo group. The researchers say, the use of vitamin E to treat dysmenorrhoea in young women is attractive because of its marked effect we have demonstrated, and the lack of significant side effects.
BBC News Online

Clone meat “seems safe”

Milk and meat produced from cloned cattle appear safe for human consumption, according to pilot study by scientists in the US and Japan. The scientists, led by Jerry Yang from the University of Connecticut, compared the products with those from normal animals of similar age and breed, and found no significant differences. They conclude that the products are within the range approved for human consumption.
BBC News Online

Fish oil and brain function in old age

Scientists at Cardiff University are investigating the ways in which oily fish may offer some defence against Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Research Trust is funding a study that is being carried out over three years on mice that have been genetically modified in order to have an Alzheimer’s-like disease. Professor John Harwood, who is leading the research, says, “When we put them on a diet rich in these fatty oils, their ability to learn improved greatly.” He adds that a study in the US last year shows that people who include oily fish in their diet are at 60 per cent less risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
BBC News Online

"Motherwell babies" to undergo tests

A group of people whose mothers adopted a low carbohydrate diet during pregnancy more than 30 years ago are to be studied by scientists at Edinburgh and Southampton universities. Almost 1,000 of the “Motherwell babies” will undergo tests intended to identify the effects of pregnant women’s diet on their offspring. The research will include a mental health test. The eating habits of the mothers were recorded in the 1960s by Dr Kerr Grieve, who believed that unhealthy eating was the cause of many of the problems suffered by mothers and babies. He then developed a diet for pregnant women that would provide “body building” foods for the healthy growth of babies.
BBC News Online

Benefits of oil in diet

Regular consumption of fish or soy oil could help keep reduce the risk of heart attack in older people, according to a research team from Mexico and the US. The scientists say heart rate variability, a crucial measure of healthy heartbeat function, improves quickly and significantly among those aged 60 and over soon after they start taking the supplements. Soy oil caused the fewest unwanted side effects, but fish oil capsules appear to provide the greater overall benefit.
HealthScout

Blood pressure effects “more widespread than supposed”

A study at St George’s Hospital Medical School indicates that potassium citrate has similar blood pressure-reducing effects to potassium chloride. Dr Graham MacGregor says it had not been clear until now how far other potassium salts could do this. “These results support other evidence for an increase in potassium intake and indicate that potassium does not need to be given in the form of chloride to [reduce] blood pressure,” he says.
Reuters Health Online

Vitamin C “can help with complication of pregnancy”

The risk of the early breaking of a woman’s waters may be reduced by daily vitamin C supplementation in the latter half of the pregnancy, say researchers in Mexico. Dr Ester Casanueva and colleagues at the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico City assessed 120 pregnant women randomly assigned 100 mg of vitamin C daily from the 20th week of gestation. After the intervention began vitamin C levels dropped in the placebo group, but rose in the supplement group. The supplement was associated with a reduced risk of “premature rupture of membranes”, which occurred in 14 out of 57 pregnancies (25 per cent) in the control group but in just 4 out of 52 pregnancies (8 per cent) in the vitamin C group.
Reuters Health Online

Warning about appropriate diet for children

Parents who give their children a low fat diet may be depriving them of vitamins, according to a researcher at the University of Nebraska. Nutrition scientist Judy Driskell says in her study of local pre-school children two-thirds turned out to have levels of vitamin E below that recommended and one-third fell short on vitamin C. She attributes most of this to the effects of parents sharing their eating habits. Besides parents’ tendency to give their children low fat foods, the researchers found day care centres serving crisps and other unhealthy snacks; some centres apparently avoided serving fresh fruit for fear that children might suffer food allergies.
CNN Online