“It’s exciting to see new techniques that could potentially make healthy foods even better for us,” said Dr. Lara Bennett, science information officer at Cancer Research UK.

The idea that plants can be genetically modified to make people healthier can definitely make things exciting for us. And the results of a research published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, showed these possibilities to be true.

A purple tomato genetically engineered to contain nutrients more commonly seen in dark berries helped prevent cancer in mice, British researchers said on Sunday.

“The effect was much bigger than we had expected,” said Martin, a plant biologist.

The study focused on anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant found in berries such as blackberries and blackcurrants that have been shown to lower risk of cancer, heart disease and some neurological diseases.

Many people do not eat enough of these fruits even though they are a boost to better health, the researchers said.

The researchers discovered that by using genes that help color the snapdragon flower, they could get the tomatoes to make anthocyanins — turning the tomato purple in the process.

Mice that had been genetically engineered to develop cancer were found to live an average of 182 days when they were fed the purple tomatoes, as compared to 142 days for animals on the standard diet.

The same plant biologist, Martin said in an interview, “It is enormously encouraging to believe that by changing diet, or specific components in the diet, you can improve health in animals and possibly humans”.

Researchers cautioned that trials in humans are a long way off and the next step is to investigate how the antioxidants actually affect the tumors to promote better health.

Other researchers said the findings do bolster research suggesting that people can significantly improve their health by making simple changes to the daily diet.

“But, it’s too early to say whether anthocyanins obtained through diet could help to reduce the risk of cancer.”

study to be published today in the journal Science shows that holding a hot cup of coffee for ten to twenty five seconds makes one more friendly and approachable. – even to a perfect stranger.  Holding a cold cup of Joe has the opposite  effect,  making you more like a cold fish.

This is the latest study to show how physical properties such as distance or temperature can unconsciously influence one’s emotional reactions.

FTA: “Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people but can also cause us to be warmer — more generous and trusting — as well,”

Report also says it’s not 100% foolproof.

Even so, if you want to be a warmer person, even possibly spicing up your love life…  Get and hold some hot coffee.

Hot coffee = warming up to perfect stranger

Our fragile economy and the shaky world financial climate are blamed for slowing up the launch of new food products says industry’s specialists. However, in spite of this dilemma, SIAL, the world’s largest food fair in Paris showcased some wacky new edibles and showed signs of a food revolution in the making. Represented at the fair were 140,000 foods from 100 nations.

New textures, oil laced fruit juice, of all things, spicy honey and dried flowers are about to hit the restaurants and food markets. These are only the beginning of overcoming the stagnation of new food products in this economical fever.

A fundamental shift in attitudes toward food is the driving force for the new mood. There is a world wide revolution for healthy, natural foods. Added to that is a growing influence of science-driven molecular cuisine practiced by a few celebrity chefs in England and Spain such as Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria. This new movement is spawning a wave of new products that are hitting the shelves of your local markets.

The old has past, foodie guru Xavier Terlet, who heads the XTC trends agency
says, “People used to hark after tradition in recipes and products, they wanted chequered table-cloths, to relive the old days. All that has changed,” he added. “Molecular gastronomy has shown chefs are not just cooks but chemists, and that has brought a new boldness to the food industry, a modern-day daring to mix and play with textures.”

Food Revolution

Kid’s food allergies up 18% over past decade.

Four out of every 100 U.S. kids under age 18 now suffer food allergies. Food allergies double the risk of asthma and triple the risk for skin or respiratory allergies. ……

A new breakthrough has been discovered that restores voluntary movement of paralysed muscles. It’s a tiny brain cell and that’s all it takes. Within minutes monkeys learned to harness the power of a single neuron to activate muscles that had been immobilised by drugs. This was learned through experiments aimed at discovering new treatments for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury or stroke.

They’ve discovered there is a surprising degree of flexibility in the kinds of tasks each neuron in the human brain can perform. Our brains contain 100 billion neurons.

“Nearly every neuron we tested could be used to control this type of stimulation,”
said Chet Moritz, lead author and a researcher at the University of Washington
“If a monkey can do it, a human should be able to do it even better”, he said.

It will be a while before this is able to be perfected for use in humans.

more

Exercise guidelines – 30 minutes, five days a week…The federal government released new exercise guidelines.  Basically it calls for 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week at moderate pace.

Want to get more healthy and fit?  Then up the intensity a factor by two for the full 30 minutes to.  If you’re just into basic health, exercise for 15 minutes at twice the intensity.

FTA;”So if you are willing to work out at a level where you are breathing so hard that conversation becomes difficult, you can cut the recommended times in half — to 15 minutes a day for general health, or 30 minutes a day for more substantial health and fitness improvements. (Don’t try to start out at this level, by the way; work up to it.)’

Accumulation also works.  In other words, if you can’t squeeze 30 minutes of exercise into your schedule at one time,  exercise 10 minutes at a time.

Exercise guidelines – 30 minutes, five days a week

Study finds 55.5 % of heart patients don’t receive the recommended stress test before they undergo angioplasty (known as PCI).

That means that only 44.5 percent of people in the study had stress tests before they underwent PCI.

Guidelines recommend that a stress test be given prior to PCI.

According to the American Heart Association, typical cost for angioplasty in 2004 was $44,110.

FTA: “U.S. doctors are implanting too many artery-opening heart stents, risking more deaths, heart attacks and other complications, because they’re not performing tests that could gauge patients’ risks, two studies found”.

Also shocking — FTA: “Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, found angioplasty adds $10,125 to a patient’s medical bill without significantly extending life or improving health”.

BIG Business -  Too many heart stents placed:

Kids need exercise

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released its first ever “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans”.

Here’s what thy recommend for kids:

” One hour or more of moderate or vigorous aerobic physical activity a day (like bike riding, jumping rope, running, and sports such as soccer, basketball and ice or field hockey), including vigorous intensity physical activity at least three days a week (such as hiking, skateboarding, bicycle riding, and brisk walking) is the recommendation for children and adolescents”.

Parents….makes sense, doesn’t it.  If you don’t want fat and unhealthy kids…  make sure they exercise and eat well.

The 1-2 punch of diet an exercise ha many health benefits including weight loss and lowering the risk for major diseases such as heart disease, certain cancers, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and more.

So get those kids eating right and exercising – and you do it too!

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends doubling the dose of vitamin D for infants, children and adolescents to a daily dose of 400 international units of vitamin D per child per day.

This study is concerned about rickets. However, there are many other health benefits now being discovered concerning vitamin D3.

The best way to get D3 into your system is through daily exposure (limited) to sunshine.  Of course, there is much controversy about sun exposure.  If one can’t get sun exposure(especially for infants), or is afraid of skin cancer, supplementation is cheap and is affordable for most everyone.

Vitamin D for children…  double the dose

Bird flu vaccination

Is the bird flu endemic future reality or government hype orparanoia?

Well, Scientists from UK claim a bird flu endemic is potentially coming, and not only that… they advocate vaccination (another controversial subject).

Here are their thoughts:

If the Bird flu does hit, it can sweep the world with breathtaking speed.  The UK scientists also label it “gravest threat” to the UK.

Their solution?  A singular Bird flu vaccination shot.

“According to the researchers, at the time of the arrival of the disease “pre-vaccinated” people were given a booster jab and they were found quite well protected against the disease.”

Bird flu shot…