ENLIGHTENED DIET: Here Is the Latest Research

by Monika Rice

TO FIGHT CANCER, GREEN TEA WITH A TWIST

Recent research published in the Journal for Agricultural and Food Chemistry supports epidemiological studies suggesting that the lower rates of breast cancer in Japan and China are linked to the regular consumption of green tea. Green tea is rich in antioxidants known as polyphenolic catechins, which in laboratory tests were shown to interfere with mammary carcinogenesis and tumor survival in rats. Another study, released by Purdue University in November 2007, reports that this antioxidant power of green tea can be boosted — up to 80 percent — by adding citrus juice such as lemon or lime to the tea, or by taking a vitamin C supplement. Vitamin C, it turns out, combines with catechins in the digestive tract and makes them easier for the body to absorb.

GREENS SAVE HEART MUSCLE

Studies show that nitrite administered after a heart attack can greatly limit tissue damage caused by blood returning to the oxygen-starved heart muscle, so researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University wondered if a nitrite-rich diet — leafy greens, beets, and spinach — could protect people from this heart attack injury. To find out, they added nitrite to the drinking water of a group of mice for seven days. They then simulated a heart attack in the animals followed by the flooding of tissue with blood after ischemia. The nitrite-supplemented mice had a 48 percent reduction in heart muscle damage compared with controls. Conclusion: consuming more vegetables rich in nitrites can benefit those at increased risk and potentially make the difference between a mild attack and one that causes severe damage or death.

WHOLE FOODS ARE THE KEY TO GOOD HEALTH

Popular belief, food industry practice, and government policy tend to focus on individual dietary nutrients such as fat, carbohydrates, and protein, or on nutritional supplements for promoting health. However, a recent academic review conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health concluded that food as a whole is the key to a healthy diet. “We are confusing ourselves and the public by talking so much about nutrients, when we should be talking about foods,” says David Jacobs, Ph.D., the principal investigator and Mayo professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. Jacobs and other researchers point out that the single-nutrient approach to nutrition has not been shown to improve health, and that long-term randomized clinical trials, considered the gold standard for making judgments about nutritional treatment and health, likewise have failed to prove the benefit of this approach. He and others propose thinking “food first” and looking at the interaction between food components in single foods, as well as the interaction of foods in whole diets, to develop a new understanding of the nutrition-health interface.