In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent "a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging," the authors note.

That finding may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.

The new resveratrol study is also important because it suggests that caloric restriction, which has been widely studied in animals from spiders to humans, and resveratrol may govern the same master genetic pathways related to aging.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 30 to 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant.

Being lactose intolerant means you can't digest lactose the natural sugar found in milk and other dairy products. People who cannot digest lactose have a shortage, or deficiency, of an enzyme called lactase, which is produced in the small intestine. Lactase breaks down milk sugar into two simpler forms of sugar, which are then absorbed into the bloodstream.

Intolerance is Not Allergy

Lactose intolerance is not the same as a milk allergy, says Kavita Dada, Pharm.D., a senior health promotion officer in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Division of Drug Information. "For most people with lactase deficiency, it's a discomfort."

But a food allergy is an abnormal response to a food triggered by the immune system and can be life threatening. People with food allergies must avoid certain foods altogether. People with food intolerances can often eat small amounts of the offending foods without having symptoms.

Symptoms:

When there is not enough lactase to digest the lactose in the foods a person eats or drinks, the person may have

• gas
• stomach cramps
• bloating
• nausea
• diarrhea

These symptoms occur within 30 minutes to two hours after consuming food containing lactose. Some illnesses can cause these same problems, but a health care professional can do tests to see if the problems are caused by lactose intolerance or by another condition.

Who Becomes Lactose Intolerant?

Lactose intolerance is more common in some ethnic groups than others. NIDDK estimates that up to 75% of all adult African Americans and Native Americans and 90% of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant.

As people age, their bodies produce fewer lactase enzymes, so most people don't have symptoms until they are adults.

Most people inherit the condition from their parents. Lactose intolerance is not very common in children under two years of age, unless the child has a lactase deficiency because of an injury to the small intestine. If you think your infant or child may be lactose intolerant, talk to your child's pediatrician.

Managing Lactose Intolerance

There is no treatment to make the body produce more lactase enzyme, but the symptoms of lactose intolerance can be controlled through diet.

Most older children and adults do not have to avoid lactose completely. People have different levels of tolerance to lactose. Some people might be able to have a tablespoon of milk in a cup of coffee with little or no discomfort. Others have reactions that are so bad they stop drinking milk entirely. Some people who cannot drink milk may be able to eat ice cream and yogurt both which have less lactose than milk without symptoms. They may also be able to consume a lactose-containing product in smaller amounts at any one time.

Common foods with lactose are:

• milks, including evaporated and condensed
• creams, including light, whipping, and sour
• ice creams
• sherbets
• yogurts
• some cheeses (including cottage cheese)
• butters

Lactose may also be added to some canned, frozen, boxed, and other prepared foods such as

• breads and other baked goods
• cereals
• mixes for cakes, cookies, pancakes, and biscuits
• instant potatoes, soups, and breakfast drinks
• lunch meats (other than Kosher)
• frozen dinners
• salad dressings
• margarines
• candies and other snacks

Dietary supplements with lactase enzyme are available to help people digest foods that contain lactose. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not formally evaluated the effectiveness of these products, and you may want to ask your doctor if these supplements are right for you.

Look at Labels

"Lactose-free" or "lactose-reduced" milk and other products are widely available in grocery stores. These products may be fortified to provide the same nutrients as their lactose-containing counterparts.

There is no FDA definition for the terms "lactose free" or "lactose-reduced," but manufacturers must provide on their food labels information that is truthful and not misleading. This means a lactose-free product should not contain any lactose, and a lactose-reduced product should be one with a meaningful reduction. Therefore, the terms lactose-free and lactose-reduced have different meanings, and a lactose-reduced product may still contain lactose that could cause symptoms.

Lactose-free or lactose-reduced products do not protect a person who is allergic to dairy products from experiencing an allergic reaction. People with milk allergies are allergic to the milk protein, which remains when the lactose is removed.

Look at the ingredient label. If any of these words are listed, the product probably contains lactose:

• milk
• cream
• butter
• evaporated milk
• condensed milk
• dried milk
• powdered milk
• milk solids
• margarine
• cheese
• whey
• curds

Beware of foods labeled "non-dairy," such as powdered coffee creamers and whipped toppings. Some of these foods may contain an ingredient called caseinate, which comes from milk and contains lactose. Look for "caseinate" or "milk derivative" on the label if you are trying to avoid milk products.

Testing for Lactose Intolerance

A doctor can usually determine if you are lactose intolerant by taking a medical history. In some cases, the doctor may perform tests to help confirm the diagnosis. A simple way to test at home is to exclude all lactose-containing products from your diet for two weeks to see if the symptoms go away, and then reintroduce them slowly. If the symptoms return, then you most likely are lactose intolerant. But you may still want to see your doctor to make sure that you are lactose intolerant and do not have a milk allergy or another digestive problem.

Tips for Consumers

If you are lactose intolerant, try lactose-free milk or dairy products lower in lactose, such as yogurt and cheese. You may be able to consume dairy products in small amounts without symptoms.

Consume milk or other dairy products with other foods. This helps slow down digestion, making it easier for your body to absorb lactose.

If you're eating few or no dairy products, ask your doctor or dietitian if you are getting enough calcium in your diet. You may need to take dietary supplements with calcium to keep your bones healthy.

Raw Milk and Lactose Intolerance

FDA warns consumers not to drink raw, or unpasteurized, milk. "Raw milk advocates claim that pasteurized milk causes lactose intolerance," says John Sheehan, Director of FDA's Division of Plant and Dairy Food Safety. "This is simply not true. All milk, whether raw or pasteurized, contains lactose, and pasteurization does not change the concentration of lactose nor does it convert lactose from one form into another."

Raw milk advocates also claim that raw milk prevents or cures the symptoms of lactose intolerance. Arguing that raw milk contains Bifidobacteria, they claim these microorganisms are beneficial (probiotic) and create their own lactase, which helps people digest the milk.

"This is not true, either," says Sheehan. "Raw milk can contain Bifidobacteria, but when it does, the bacteria come from fecal matter (animal manure) and are not considered probiotic, but instead are regarded as contaminants."

Drinking raw milk will still cause uncomfortable symptoms in people who are correctly diagnosed as being lactose intolerant. But worse than this discomfort are the dangers of raw milk, which can harbor a host of disease-causing germs, says Sheehan. "These microorganisms can cause very serious, and sometimes even fatal, disease conditions in humans."

Source: FDA/Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition

Read more: National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Lactose Intolerance

Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.

Often the limited information available at point of purchase or consumption makes it difficult to make informed choices regarding fish and seafood products.

Read more:

The New York Times 

Environmental Protection Agency - Fish Consumption Advisories

U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Seafood Information and Resources

"The oxidative hypothesis of cataract formation posits that reactive oxygen species can damage lens proteins and fiber cell membranes and that nutrients with antioxidant capabilities can protect against these changes," the authors write as background information in the article. Vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin are all believed to have antioxidant properties. Lutein and zeaxanthin are the only carotenoids - yellow plant pigments - present in the lens of the human eye and may also protect against cataracts by filtering harmful blue light.

William G. Christen, Sc.D., of Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues analyzed dietary information from 35,551 female health professionals who enrolled in the Women's Health Study in 1993. The women were then followed for an average of 10 years, and the diets of those who developed cataracts were compared with the diets of those who did not.

A total of 2,031 women developed cataracts during the study. When the participants were split into five groups based on the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin they consumed, those in the group who consumed the most (about 6,716 micrograms per day) had an 18 percent lower chance of developing cataracts than those who consumed the least (1,177 micrograms per day). The one-fifth who consumed the most vitamin E from food and supplements - about 262.4 milligrams per day - were 14 percent less likely than the one-fifth who got the least (4.4 milligrams per day).

"In conclusion, these prospective data from a large cohort of female health professionals indicate that higher intakes of lutein/zeaxanthin and vitamin E are associated with decreased risk of cataract," the authors write. "Although reliable data from randomized trials are accumulating for vitamin E and other antioxidant vitamins, randomized trial data for lutein/zeaxanthin are lacking. Such information will help to clarify the benefits of supplemental use of lutein/zeaxanthin and provide the most reliable evidence on which to base public health recommendations for cataract prevention by vitamin supplementation."

Read more:

Science Daily

Following are the six foods that should be included in every woman's diet.

1. Low fat yogurt - Nutritionists say yogurt has the potential to decrease the risk of breast cancer and can reduce problems associated with digestive tract disorders and stomach ulcers.

2. Fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and mackerel - Fatty fish is packed with two types of omega-3 fatty acids. It helps protect women from heart disease, stroke, hypertension, depression, and may even Alzheimer's disease.

3. Beans - Beans are a good source of protein and fiber. They're low in fat and help protect against heart disease and breast cancer.

More: KABC TV

Researchers have known for some time that garlic - like its close relative, the onion - is a rich source of heart-protective compounds called thiosulfinates. These sulfur compounds, best known for causing eyes to water, may lower blood pressure and break up potentially harmful clusters of platelets in the bloodstream.

But, up to now, most researchers and nutritionists assumed that the best way to seize on garlic's cardiovascular benefits was to eat the small bulbs in their most unfettered form: in the raw.

Since most people worldwide saute or bake their garlic before eating it, the researchers wanted to know if cooking reduced garlic's blood-thinning effects. They also wanted to see what impact crushing the garlic before cooking had on its ability to bust up artery-clogging platelets.

After boiling, baking and microwaving both crushed and uncrushed cloves of garlic and evaluating them for their antiplatelet activity, the scientists learned that lightly cooked, crushed garlic provides most of the health benefits found in raw garlic. The only exception was microwaving, which stripped garlic almost entirely of its blood-thinning effects.

The researchers contend that while heating might be generally blamed for reducing garlic's antiplatelet activity, it's the crushing that enables the beneficial compounds to be freed in the first place.

Read more:

Agricultural Research Service

Wikipedia - Garlic

With the help of some of the peanut industry's research we have assembled some interesting facts and nutritional insights on peanut butter.

Peanuts are not actually nuts at all! They are legumes, like beans, peas and lentils.

People in the U.S. eat, on average, 7 pounds of peanuts and peanut products per person, per year. About 50% of this is consumed as peanut butter.

Peanut butter was first introduced to the general public at the 1904 World's Fair but it was patented by the Kellogg family of Battle Creek, Michigan in 1895. The original process used steamed peanuts which lacked the flavor of roasted peanuts.

Found in about 75% of American homes, peanut butter is considered by many to be a staple like bread and milk.

One ounce of roasted peanuts provides 10% (41 micrograms) of the daily value of folate, the naturally occurring form of the B vitamin folic acid, recommended for the reduction of birth defects and lowered heart disease risk. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich provides 18% (73 micrograms).

Arachibutyrophobia (I-RA-KEE-BU-TI-RO-PHO-BI-A) is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth. Some people suggest adding lettuce to your sandwich to prevent this! 

Two peanut farmers have been elected President of the United States: Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.

You can make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches from just one acre of peanuts. An average of 2,861 pounds peanuts are harvested from one acre of peanut plants.

It takes 810 peanuts to make an 18-ounce jar of peanut butter.

We even found a reliable recipe for making Homemade Peanut Butter with your kids.

For more information:

The Peanut Institute

The Peanut Foundation

Peanut Butter Lovers

Jif

Skippy

Just under the wire for National Dairy Month, this we hear about more reasons to like dairy products.

A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that women are better off eating plenty of calcium-rich food than relying on supplements for their intake of the mineral.

Postmenopausal women who got their calcium mainly from diet or from diet and supplements had a greater average bone mineral density (BMD) than women who got most of their calcium from supplements, principal investigator Dr. Reina C. Armamento-Villareal of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and her colleagues found.

Read more:
Scientific American
The Baltimore Sun