Month: February 2010

by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) A recent study on dietary influences on IQ turned up a surprising connection: children who ate margarine regularly scored significantly lower on intelligence tests than their peers.

The study was conducted by researchers from Auckland University in New Zealand and published in the journal Intelligence.

Researchers studied the dietary intake and intelligence scores of children born in the mid-1990s.

"We found a number of dietary factors to be significantly associated with intelligence measures," the researchers said. "The association between margarine consumption and IQ scores was the most consistent and novel finding."

After adjusting for other factors that might influence IQ, including socioeconomic status, the researchers found that children who ate margarine daily scored three points lower on IQ tests by the age of three-and-a-half than children with lower margarine consumption.

By the age of seven, the average IQ scores of some margarine eaters were six points below those of their peers. This occurred only in children who had been born underweight, suggesting that disadvantaged brains might be more vulnerable to diet-induced problems.

Because the study was correlational, researchers were unable to determine what exactly caused the IQ gap between the two groups of children. They suspect, however, that the culprit may be transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils.

Formed by adding hydrogen atoms to unsaturated vegetable oils, transfats have a longer shelf life and are more solid at room temperature than natural vegetable oils. In the mid-1990s, margarines were made with up to 17 percent transfats. In recent years, however, scientists discovered that not only do transfats have no nutritional value, they also drastically increase the risk of heart attack and death in those who consume them.

Most margarines now contain approximately 1 percent transfats.

Sian Porter of the British Dietetic Association noted that while margarine tends to be healthier than butter, dietary consumption of both should be kept low.

by: Brett Brown

(NaturalNews) An apple a day keeps the doctor away! This is a saying that has stayed with us for many years. It is believed to have come from an ancient Roman proverb. The Romans truly believed the apple had magical powers to cure illnesses. Let's take a look at some of the reasons why this might be true.

Antioxidants and Vitamin C
Humans are unable to synthesize vitamin C within our bodies like other mammals, so it is essential that we find a good food source of this vitamin. Apples are one of these foods. Vitamin C is well known for preventing scurvy through the use of limes by the British Navy during 1795. It is also well known that vitamin C has many immune system enhancing properties and is therefore essential to our daily health. Vitamin C is a superb antioxidant, and is essential for cell detoxification and enzymatic function.

Apples also contain bioflavonoids. Bioflavonoids are also known for their antioxidant properties. Bioflavonoids are also believed to be of use in the prevention and treatment of various types of cancers by inducing mechanisms that help to kill cancer cells and inhibit tumor invasion.

Apples actually contain a long list of phytonutrients including quercetin, catechin, phlorizin and chlorogenic acid. It is important to know however that many of the nutrients of an apple are contained within the apple's skin, so be sure not to skin your apples before consuming them.

Fiber
One apple, depending on the type and size, typically contains about 4 grams of dietary fiber per five ounce apple. This equates to approximately 15% of your recommended daily intake. Apples contain both soluble and insoluble fiber in the form of cellulose and pectin. Both of these fibers have been documented to reduce and keep your LDL cholesterol levels under control.

Research done in Japan has shown that apple pectin can help decrease the chance of obtaining colon cancer. Pectin is also effective in causing regressions in and prevention of gallstones.

Asthma and Lung Support
Unique to apples is a crucial flavonoid called phlorizin. Phlorizin is believed to be important in the support of asthma and lung support, even more so than some of the other citrus fruits that are known to be helpful.

So with all of this information we can see how the saying could have easily come about. Although not one of the more exotic or expensive rare fruits or superfoods on the planet, apples truly can be a benefit to our daily diet. An apple a day can definitely help keep the doctors away, and that my friend is tasty!

by: M.Thornley

(NaturalNews) Sutherlandia frutescens, or Cancer Bush, is an attractive legume with delicate red flowers pictured on the South African national postage stamp. Long used by indigenous people in South Africa to treat cancer, tuberculosis, flu, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and AIDS, researchers have recently done successful trials with this medicinal plant. Sutherlandia is known for its adaptogenic properties, its calming effect, and its ability to assist with weight gain when given to wasting patients. No toxicity or side effect has been noted.

by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) Public health warnings about the skin cancer risks associated with sun exposure have led people to avoid sunlight to such an extent that vitamin D deficiencies have now become widespread, according to a study conducted by researchers from King's College London.

The body produces vitamin D upon exposure to the ultraviolet radiation from sunlight. It takes only 15 minutes of sun on the face and hands each day for a fair-skinned person to produce enough vitamin D for their body, although it takes longer for darker-skinned people and those living far from the equator, particularly in the winter. Nevertheless, vitamin D deficiency appears widespread. One recent study from University College London estimated that 12 percent of men and 20 percent of women are clinically deficient in the vitamin, while 57 percent of men and nearly 67 percent of women have insufficient levels.

Vitamin D plays a critical role in bone development and health, and is now also believed to help protect against high blood pressure, cancer, autoimmune diseases and asthma.

"There has been so much effort put into telling people about the damaging effects of ultraviolet light from sunshine, many now take extreme measures to ensure they don't get exposure by wearing moisturizers with factor 15 all year round," said lead researcher Veronique Bataille, calling for new guidelines on sun exposure. "We don't want to say that sunbathing is healthy as there is clearly a risk, but people do need a bit of sunshine to stay healthy."

Bataille and colleagues measured blood vitamin D levels of 1,414 white women in the United Kingdom and collected information on their skin type, use of tanning beds, and history of foreign holidays and sunburns. They found that contrary to expectation, the women with the lightest skin actually had the lowest levels of vitamin D. The researchers concluded that this was likely due to lighter-skinned women avoiding the sun over fear of skin cancer.

Light-skinned women were also less likely to use tanning beds or take vacations out of Britain.

Vitamin D3-5

Now a study by Chinese scientists, published in the in the January 28th issue of the journal Neuron, shows magnesium could have a powerful impact on the brain, too — and boost learning and memory.

In a statement to the media, the researchers noted that diet can affect cognitive capacity. Because learning and memory tend to decline with age and disease, they decided to search for dietary factors that could prevent these changes by having a positive influence on the sites of communication between brain cells (neurons) called synapses. Professor Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, led the new study to see whether supplementing the diet with magnesium could boost brain power in this way.

The results suggest increasing magnesium intake could be a successful, drug-free way to improve brain function. It also supports the idea that too-low levels of magnesium could result in increased deterioration of memory in aging humans.

"Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demonstrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells," Dr. Liu explained in the press statement. "Therefore it was tempting to take our studies a step further and investigate whether an increase in brain magnesium levels enhanced cognitive function in animals."

Using a new magnesium compound dubbed magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) that can significantly increase magnesium in the brain when used as a dietary supplement, the research team gave magnesium to lab rats of different ages along with their regular diet. Then the scientists checked the animals for behavioral and cellular changes associated with memory.

"We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats," stated Dr. Liu. In fact, the research revealed an increase in the number of functional synapses and enhancement of a host of processes in the brain that are necessary for learning and memory.

"Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing magnesium intake might be a useful new strategy to enhance cognitive abilities," Dr. Liu concluded in the media statement. "Moreover, half the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging. This may very well contribute to age-dependent memory decline; increasing magnesium intake might prevent or reduce such decline."

Editor's note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present these findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired.

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