When You Eat Matters, Not Just What You Eat

When it comes to weight gain, when you eat might be at least as important as what you eat.

When mice on a high-fat diet are restricted to eating for eight hours per day, they eat just as much as those who can eat around the clock, yet they are protected against obesity and other metabolic ills, the new study shows. The discovery suggests that the health consequences of a poor diet might result in part from a mismatch between our body clocks and our eating schedules.

"Every organ has a clock," said lead author of the study Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles, and other organs will work at peak efficiency and other times when they are—more or less—sleeping.

Those metabolic cycles are critical for processes from cholesterol breakdown to glucose production, and they should be primed to turn on when we eat and back off when we don't, or vice versa. When mice or people eat frequently throughout the day and night, it can throw off those normal metabolic cycles.

"When we eat randomly, those genes aren't on completely or off completely," Panda said. The principle is just like it is with sleep and waking, he explained. If we don't sleep well at night, we aren't completely awake during the day, and we work less efficiently as a consequence.

To find out whether restricted feeding alone—without a change in calorie intake—could prevent metabolic disease, Panda's team fed mice either a standard or high-fat diet with one of two types of food access: ad lib feeding or restricted access.

The time-restricted mice on a high-fat diet were protected from the adverse effects of a high-fat diet and showed improvements in their metabolic and physiological rhythms. They gained less weight and suffered less liver damage. The mice also had lower levels of inflammation, among other benefits.

Panda says there is reason to think our eating patterns have changed in recent years, as many people have greater access to food and reasons to stay up into the night, even if just to watch TV. And when people are awake, they tend to snack.

The findings suggest that restricted meal times might be an underappreciated lifestyle change to help people keep off the pounds. At the very least, the new evidence suggests that this is a factor in the obesity epidemic that should be given more careful consideration.

"The focus has been on what people eat," Panda said. "We don't collect data on when people eat."

Are Women’s Handbags Dirtier Than Toilets?

Women's handbags have more microbes than those that exist in most toilets surface of the toilets. Women put the bag all over the place. They take the bag with them all the time and are passing germs from hand to bag. And no bleach goes in the bag.

The study carried out by Maulori Cabral, Professor at the Institute of Microbiology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) reveals that hand cream, lipstick and make-up kits are the dirtiest items that women carry in their handbags. The study compared findings with research carried out by the UK market research company Initial Washroom Hygiene which specializes in cleaning public toilets.

Maulori Cabral agrees with the research. "That's what she (the woman) touches more often, but from the outside". He explained that the lipsticks, themselves, already have antimicrobial agents. The same is true regarding hand cream. Vials containing cream are all the time being held by female hands.

Maulori Cabral clarified that when a person holds an object, he/she transfers part of his/her microbiota to it. "Every living creature you meet has a population of microbes associated with the body itself. Each person has their bacterial populations. This set of bacterial populations that is associated with a body called microbiota," he said.

Cabral ruled out, however, that the fact that handbag presents more microbes than the surface of toilets endangers human health. "No way. This is all about creating panic. The microbiota is part of the evolution of living beings. Each person carries about 100 trillion bacteria. The adult body consists of 10 trillion cells that are descendants of fertilization, i.e. our embryonic origin". When the creature is born, it becomes contaminated with bacteria, including from the mother herself, and when it becomes an adult, the person carries ten times more bacteria than embryonic cells. "When you touch something, you pass your microbes onto it".

In the virologist´s assessment, washing your hands so often does not reduce the number of bacteria present in women's handbags. What you need is always to wash the hands before meals and after going to the bathroom. "When you wash your hands, you do not get rid of your germs, you get rid of the germs of others. Because yours are part of your microbiota. The microbes belonging to others are the ones that can harm you, or not".

Cabral reiterated that human beings are born to live with microbes. "Dressing microbes up as something evil is the greatest absurdity". He said that children take lactobacillus alive because it is good for their health and said that microbial contamination is a natural thing. Although microbes are invisible, they are the most powerful beings on the planet," stated the UFRJ Professor.

 "Microbes are part of everyday life," Cabral explained that as the human being is a social animal, men greet each other, exchanging microbes in the handshake. "The first thing you do is: here, have some of my microbes and give me some of yours". When there is more intimacy with another person, kisses are exchanged. "Then the thing complicates" because, according to Cabral, each droplet of saliva has 100,000 bacteria. "But is there anything better than swapping bacteria?" joked the professor. This means that the more intimate the greeting, the more microbiota are shared.

Improving Food Safety by Monitoring Suppliers and Traceability

Food safety concerns have been on the rise since the horsemeat scandal earlier this year showed how little control many food companies really have over their supply chain. Public confidence has been shaken as a result of these fraudulent actions. The horsemeat scandal has demonstrated the importance of proper controls.

When something goes wrong and food or feed product is recalled, the loss of product is really the least of concerns, as damage to the brand and subsequent lawsuits quickly outpace the cost of the recall itself.

In the past, food companies have relied on third-party external audits to make sure their suppliers and food processors were delivering a high quality product, but the third-party audits are often announced well ahead of time and were paid for by the suppliers and manufacturers. Supplier auditing has become more common.

The hazards include microbiological, chemical, including allergens and physical, issues that can cause food to be unsafe, shall be controlled and monitored by a strong food safety management system. If unchecked, they could lead to serious brand or/and financial damage for the business.

Food safety management system is term that encompasses many aspects of handling, preparation and storage of food to prevent illness and injury. A priority of food quality is control of:

• Chemical properties of which allergens can be life threatening to some people, or vitamin and mineral content which affect the overall quality of the food.
• Physical particles which are crucial but are not as significant in terms of food safety. As glass and metal can be hazardous and cause serious injury to consumers. 
• Microbiological hazards such bacteria, viruses and toxins are possible contaminants of food and impact food safety.

Food manufacturers and distributors are increasingly concerned about building effective food safety management system, decreasing the possibility of occurring food safety events and then control corporate managing risk.

User friendly tools which will help maintaining supplier approval process and verifying internal policies, procedures and systems have been developed by a team of food safety experts.

The Food Safety Audit, Supplier Risk Assessment, BRC Issue 6 Audit and Traceability Audit aim at reducing and preventing issues along the supply chain, from the suppliers to the customer.

Supplier Risk Assessment is the process of evaluating risks to safety, legality and quality of the products. To get a full picture of suppliers individualized risk assessments shall be made on the performance of each supplier.

Food Safety Audits are a crucial aspects of maintaining food safety standards, by providing transparency and assurance that standards are being maintained.

Traceability is a way of responding to potential risks that can arise in food and feed, to ensure that all food products are safe.

Traceability is a risk management tool, allowing food businesses to withdraw or recall products that have been identified as unsafe.

BRC Issue 6 Audits are a systematic, independent and documented activity in which objective evidence is gathered and assessed to determine if a food safety system is appropriate and effective. BRC Issue 6 Audits also provide evidence that food is manufactured in a safe environment and help determine if hazards are properly identified and controlled or eliminated.

See more at http://www.haccpeuropa.com

IFS Food Defense

We would like to introduce food quality manuals we have developed. We have started with Food Defense. I hope you will find it interesting.
Food Defense is preventing or eliminating the deliberate contamination of food by bacterial agents, toxins, chemicals, radiation, or a physical object, as compared to Food Safety which is the protection of the food supply from unintentional contamination. Prevention is the most important aspect of food defense.
The intentional contamination may come from an angry employee, a criminal element, a dishonest competitor or an organized terrorist. Threats to Food Defense might occur at any level in the food-supply chain.  The motivations for such attacks vary greatly and include, but are not limited to, financial gain, thrill/challenge, prestige, revenge, publicity, chaos, competitive advantage, or political reasons.
Find out more...  http://www.haccpeuropa.com

Diabetes Linked to Quantity of Sugar Intake

Eating too much of any food, including sugar, can cause you to gain weight; it’s the resulting obesity that predisposes people to diabetes, according to the prevailing theory. For years, scientists have said eating too much sugar “not exactly” causes diabetes.

But now the results of a large epidemiological study suggest sugar may also have a direct, independent link to diabetes. Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco examined data on sugar availability and diabetes rates from 175 countries over the past decade. After accounting for obesity and a large array of other factors, the researchers found that increased sugar in a population’s food supply was linked to higher diabetes rates, independent of obesity rates.

“It was quite a surprise,” said Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the study’s lead author. The research was conducted while Basu was a medical resident at UCSF.

The study provides the first large-scale, population-based evidence for the idea that not all calories are equal from a diabetes-risk standpoint, Basu said. “We’re not diminishing the importance of obesity at all, but these data suggest that at a population level there are additional factors that contribute to diabetes risk besides obesity and total calorie intake, and that sugar appears to play a prominent role.”

Specifically, more sugar was correlated with more diabetes: For every additional 150 calories of sugar available per person per day, the prevalence of diabetes in the population rose 1 percent, even after controlling for obesity, physical activity, other types of calories and a number of economic and social variables. A 12-ounce can of soda contains about 150 calories of sugar. In contrast, an additional 150 calories of any type caused only a 0.1 percent increase in the population’s diabetes rate.

Not only was sugar availability correlated to diabetes risk, but the longer a population was exposed to excess sugar, the higher its diabetes rate after controlling for obesity and other factors. In addition, diabetes rates dropped over time when sugar availability dropped, independent of changes to consumption of other calories and physical activity or obesity rates.

The findings do not prove that sugar causes diabetes, Basu emphasized, but do provide real-world support for the body of previous laboratory and experimental trials that suggest sugar affects the liver and pancreas in ways that other types of foods or obesity do not. “We really put the data through a wringer in order to test it out,” Basu said.

The study used food-supply data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization to estimate the availability of different foods in the 175 countries examined, as well as estimates from the International Diabetes Foundation on the prevalence of diabetes among 20- to 79-year-olds. The researchers employed new statistical methods derived from econometrics to control for factors that could provide alternate explanations for an apparent link between sugar and diabetes, including overweight and obesity; many non-sugar components of the food supply, such as fiber, fruit, meat, cereals and oils; total calories available per day; sedentary behavior; rates of economic development; household income; urbanization of the population; tobacco and alcohol use; and percentage of the population age 65 or older, since age is also associated with diabetes risk.

“Epidemiology cannot directly prove causation,” said Robert Lustig, MD, pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and the senior author of the study. “But in medicine, we rely on the postulates of Sir Austin Bradford Hill to examine associations to infer causation, as we did with smoking. You expose the subject to an agent, you get a disease; you take the agent away, the disease gets better; you re-expose and the disease gets worse again. This study satisfies those criteria, and places sugar front and center.”

“As far as I know, this is the first paper that has had data on the relationship of sugar consumption to diabetes,” said Marion Nestle, PhD, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University who was not involved in the study. “This has been a source of controversy forever. It’s been very, very difficult to separate sugar from the calories it provides. This work is carefully done, it’s interesting and it deserves attention.”

The fact that the paper used data obtained over time is an important strength, Basu said. “Point-in-time studies are susceptible to all kinds of reverse causality,” he said. “For instance, people who are already diabetic or obese might eat more sugars due to food cravings.”

The researchers had to rely on food-availability data for this study instead of consumption data because no large-scale international databases exist to measure food consumption directly. Basu said follow-up studies are needed to examine possible links between diabetes and specific sugar sources, such as high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose, and also to evaluate the influence of specific foods, such as soft drinks or processed foods.

Another important future step, he said, is to conduct randomized clinical trials that could affirm a cause-and-effect connection between sugar consumption and diabetes. Although it would be unethical to feed people large amounts of sugar to try to induce diabetes, scientists could put participants of a study on a low-sugar diet to see if it reduces diabetes risk.

Basu was cautious about possible policy implications of his work, stating that more evidence is needed before enacting widespread policies to lower sugar consumption.

However, Nestle pointed out that the findings add to many other studies that suggest people should cut back on their sugar intake. “How much circumstantial evidence do you need before you take action?” she said. “At this point we have enough circumstantial evidence to advise people to keep their sugar a lot lower than it normally is.”

Vitamin D Supplements Intake During Pregnancy Linked to Food Allergies

Vitamin D has always had a good reputation: it strengthens bones, protects against infections particularly during the cold winter months and aids the nervous and muscular systems. Especially in the prevention and treatment of rickets, it has been given to babies and infants around the world for around 50 years. However, recent scientific investigations are increasingly questioning the positive aspect of the “bone vitamin.” At the end of the 1990′s, for the first time people’s attention was drawn to a link between high vitamin D levels and the development of allergies.

Pregnant women should avoid taking vitamin D supplements, according to a new research carried out by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. Substitution appears to raise the risk of children developing a food allergy after birth.

To pursue the problem, together with Prof. Gabriele Stangl’s group from the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at the Martin-Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, Dr. Kristin Weiße from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig devoted herself to the following task: can it be proved that there is a correlation between the concentration of vitamin D in the blood of expectant mothers and in cord blood of the babies? The researchers from the UFZ in Leipzig were furthermore interested in the association between vitamin D levels during pregnancy and at birth, the immune status and allergic diseases of the children later in life. Or, in other words: does the vitamin D level of pregnant women affect the allergy risk of their children?

To investigate the question, Dr. Kristin Weiße’s team from Leipzig used samples from the LiNA cohort that the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) had established together with the St. Georg municipal clinic between 2006 and 2008 headed by Dr. Irina Lehmann. In total, it was possible to include 622 mothers and their 629 children in the long-term study “Lifestyle and environmental factors and their impact on the newborn allergy risk.” The level of vitamin D was tested in the blood of the pregnant mothers and also in the cord blood of the children born. In addition to this, questionnaires were used to assess the occurrence of food allergies during the first two years of the children’s lives.

The result was clear: in cases where expectant mothers were found to have a low vitamin D level in the blood, the occurrence of food allergies among their two-year old children was rarer than in cases where expectant mothers had a high vitamin D blood level. In reverse, this means that a high vitamin D level in pregnant women is associated with a higher risk of their children to develop a food allergy during infancy. Furthermore, those children were found to have a high level of the specific immunoglobulin E to food allergens such as egg white, milk protein, wheat flour, peanuts or soya beans. The UFZ scientists also got evidence fot the mechanism that could link vitamin D and food allergies. Dr. Gunda Herberth — also from the Department of Environmental Immunology at the UFZ — took a closer look at the immune response of the affected children and analysed regulatory T-cells in cord blood in particular. The cells are capable of preventing the immune system from overreacting to allergens, with the result that they protect against allergies. The UFZ researchers know from earlier analyses that the allergy risk increases in cases where too few regulatory T-cells are present in cord blood. The interesting result of the current research project: the higher the level of vitamin D found in the blood of mothers and children, the fewer regulatory T-cells could be detected. The correlation could mean that vitamin D suppresses the development of regulatory T-cells and thus increases the risk of allergy.

Apart from diet, Dr. Kristin Weiße explained that the level of vitamin D is mainly affected by conditions such as season, exposure to the sun and the amount of time spent outdoors — these factors were also taken into account in the current risk analyses of vitamin D and food allergy. Even though the occurrence of food allergies is undoubtedly affected by many other factors than just the vitamin D level, it is still important to take this aspect into consideration. The UFZ researchers would rather advise pregnant women not to take vitamin D supplements. “Based on our information, an excess of vitamin D can increase the risk of children developing a food allergy in the first two years of their life.”

Is Obesity Promoted by Outdoor Fast Food Ads?

Past studies have suggested a relationship between neighborhood characteristics and obesity, as well as a connection between obesity and advertisements on television and in magazines.

Now, new research from UCLA has identified a possible link between outdoor food ads and a tendency to pack on pounds. The findings, researchers say, are not encouraging.

Researchers suggest that the more outdoor advertisements promoting fast food and soft drinks there are in a given census tract, the higher the likelihood that the area’s residents are overweight.

“Obesity is a significant health problem, so we need to know the factors that contribute to the overeating of processed food,” said Lesser, who conducted the research while a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the UCLA Department of Family Medicine and UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.

“Previous research has found that fast food ads are more prevalent in low-income, minority areas, and laboratory studies have shown that marketing gets people to eat more,” said Lesser, now a research physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute in California. “This is one of the first studies to suggest an association between outdoor advertising and obesity.”

For the study, the researchers looked at two densely populated areas in Los Angeles and New Orleans, each with more than 2,000 people per square mile. They focused on more than 200 randomly selected census tracts from those two areas, which included a mixture of high- and low-income residents.

The team used data on outdoor food advertising in those areas gleaned from a previous study on ads and alcohol consumption (which had tracked all the outdoor ads). They then linked that information with telephone-survey data from the same study, in which nearly 2,600 people between the ages of 18 and 98 from those areas were asked health-related questions in addition to questions about their height, weight, self-reported body mass index (BMI) and soda consumption.

The researchers found a correlation: The higher the percentage of outdoor ads for food, the higher the odds of obesity in those areas.

“For instance, in a typical census tract with about 5,000 people, if 30 percent of the outdoor ads were devoted to food, we would expect to find an additional 100 to 150 people who are obese, compared with a census tract without any food ads,” Lesser said.

Given that the study focused on only two areas, the authors urge further research to determine if the findings would be replicated in other areas. Because the study was cross-sectional, the researchers do not claim that the ads caused the obesity. They also note that self-reported information about weight is subject to recall bias, and people often under-report their true weight.

But this study suggests enough of a link between outdoor food advertising and “a modest, but clinically meaningful, increased likelihood of obesity” to warrant further examination, the researchers conclude.

“If the … associations are confirmed by additional research, policy approaches may be important to reduce the amount of food advertising in urban areas,” the researchers write, while noting that outright bans on such ads might be deemed unconstitutional. “Innovative strategies, such as warning labels, counter-advertising, or a tax on obesogenic advertising should be tested as possible public health interventions for reducing the prevalence of obesity.”

Dietary Nutrients Associated With Sleep Patterns

Sleep, like nutrition and physical activity, is a critical determinant of health and well-being. With the increasing prevalence of obesity and its consequences, sleep researchers have begun to explore the factors that predispose individuals to weight gain and ultimately obesity. Now, a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows for the first time that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods — an indicator of an overall healthy diet — had the healthiest sleep patterns.

“Although many of us inherently recognize that there is a relationship between what we eat and how we sleep, there have been very few scientific studies that have explored this connection, especially in a real-world situation,” said Michael A. Grandner, PhD, instructor in Psychiatry and member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at Penn. ” In general, we know that those who report between 7 — 8 hours of sleep each night are most likely to experience better overall health and well being, so we simply asked the question “Are there differences in the diet of those who report shorter sleep, longer sleep, or standard sleep patterns?”

To answer this question, the research team analyzed data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NHANES includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions. The sample for the survey is selected to represent the U.S. population of all ages and demographics. For the current study, researchers used the survey question regarding how much sleep each participant reported getting each night to separate the sample into groups of different sleep patterns. Sleep patterns were broken out as “Very Short” (<5 h per night), ”Short” (5-6 h per night), ”Standard’ (7-8h per night), and ”Long” (9 h or more per night). NHANES participants also sat down with specially trained staff who went over, in great detail, a full day’s dietary intake. This included everything from the occasional glass of water to complete, detailed records of every part of each meal. With this data, the Penn research team analyzed whether each group differed from the 7-8 hour “standard” group on any nutrients and total caloric intake. They also looked at these associations after controlling for overall diet, demographics, socioeconomics, physical activity, obesity, and other factors that could have explained this relationship.

The authors found that total caloric intake varied across groups. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers. Differences across groups were found for many types of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

In a statistical analysis, the research team found that there were a number of dietary differences, but these were largely driven by a few key nutrients. They found that very short sleep was associated with less intake of tap water, lycopene (found in red- and orange-colored foods), and total carbohydrates, short sleep was associated with less vitamin C, tap water, selenium (found in nuts, meat and shellfish), and more lutein/zeaxanthin (found in green, leafy vegetables), and long sleep was associated with less intake of theobromine (found in chocolate and tea), dodecanoic acid (a saturated fat) choline (found in eggs and fatty meats), total carbohydrates, and more alcohol.

“Overall, people who sleep 7 — 8 hours each night differ in terms of their diet, compared to people who sleep less or more. We also found that short and long sleep are associated with lower food variety,” said Dr. Grandner. “What we still don’t know is if people altered their diets, would they be able to change their overall sleep pattern? This will be an important area to explore going forward as we know that short sleep duration is associated with weight gain and obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Likewise, we know that people who sleep too long also experience negative health consequences. If we can pinpoint the ideal mix of nutrients and calories to promote healthy sleep, the healthcare community has the potential to make a major dent in obesity and other cardiometabolic risk factors.”

Dark Chocolate and Red Wine for Valentine’s Day Celebration

Dark chocolate and red wine are the real food of love, according to a dietitian at the Loyola University, Susan Ofria. In moderation, red wine and dark chocolate are good health choices not just on Valentine’s Day, but for any occasion.

“You are not even choosing between the lesser of two evils, red wine and dark chocolate have positive components that are actually good for your heart,” said Ofria.

Red wine and dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher contain resveratrol, which has been found to lower blood sugar. Red wine is also a source of catechins, which could help improve “good” HDL cholesterol.

Ofria, who is also a nutrition educator, recommends the following list of heart-healthy ingredients for February, which is national heart month, and for good heart health all year.

Red Wine — “Pinots, shirahs, merlots — all red wines are a good source of catechins and resveratrol to aid ‘good’ cholesterol.”

Dark chocolate, 70 percent or higher cocoa content — “Truffles, soufflés and even hot chocolate can be a good source of resveratrol and cocoa phenols (flavonoids) as long as dark chocolate with a high content of cocoa is used.”

Salmon/tuna — “Especially white, or albacore, tuna and salmon are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and canned salmon contains soft bones that give an added boost of calcium intake.”

Flaxseeds — “Choose either brown or golden yellow, and have them ground for a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, phytoestrogens.”

Oatmeal — “Cooked for a breakfast porridge or used in breads or desserts, oatmeal is a good source of soluble fiber, niacin, folate and potassium.” Black or kidney beans — Good source of niacin, folate, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, soluble fiber.

Walnuts and almonds — “Both walnuts and almonds contain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, magnesium, fiber and heart-favorable mono- and polyunsaturated fats.”

Blueberries/cranberries/raspberries/strawberries — “Berries are a good source of beta carotene and lutein, anthocyanin, ellagic acid (a polyphenol), vitamin C, folate, potassium and fiber.”

Don’t Mix Alcohol With Diet Drinks

An individual’s breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) following alcohol intake is influenced by several factors, including food. While it is known that food delays the stomach emptying, thus reducing BrAC, only recently has the role of non-alcoholic drink mixers used with alcohol been explored as a factor influencing BrAC. A new comparison of BrACs of alcohol consumed with an artificial sweetener versus alcohol consumed with a sugared beverage has found that mixing alcohol with a diet soft drink can result in a higher BrAC.

“More attention needs to be paid to how alcohol is being consumed in the ‘real world,’” said Cecile A. Marczinski, assistant professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University. She referenced an earlier field study of bar patrons. “Researchers found that, one, individuals who reported consuming alcohol with diet beverages had the highest BrACs, as compared to all other bar patrons, and two, that women tended to be more frequent consumers of diet mixers with their alcohol. These good naturalistic observations give researchers many ideas to explore in a controlled laboratory setting.”

“I am really interested in drinking and driving as a problem, so I wanted to know if the simple choice of mixer could be the factor that puts a person above or below the legal limit,” added Marczinski. “I also wanted to determine if any BrAC difference would be something that subjects would notice, since this has implications for safe drinking practices, including decisions to drive.”

Study authors had 16 participants (8 females, 8 males) attend three sessions where they received one of three doses — 1.97 ml/kg vodka mixed with 3.94 ml/kg Squirt, 1.97 ml/kg vodka mixed with 3.94 ml/kg diet Squirt, and a placebo beverage — in random order. The participants’ BrACs were recorded, as well as their self-reported ratings of subjective intoxication, fatigue, impairment, and willingness to drive. Their objective performance was assessed using a cued go/no-go reaction time task.

“Alcohol consumed with a diet mixer results in higher BrACs as compared to the same amount of alcohol consumed with a sugar-sweetened mixer,” said Marczinski. “The subjects were unaware of this difference, as measured by various subjective ratings including feelings of intoxication, impairment, and willingness to drive. Moreover, their behavior was more impaired when subjects consumed the diet mixer.”

When asked why mixing alcohol with a diet drink appears to elevate BrACs, the researchers explained that the stomach seems to treat sugar-sweetened beverages like food, which delays the stomach from emptying. “The best way to think about these effects is that sugar-sweetened alcohol mixers slow down the absorption of alcohol into bloodstream. Artificially sweetened alcohol mixers do not really elevate alcohol intoxication. Rather, the lack of sugar simply allows the rate of alcohol absorption to occur without hindrance.”

The researchers were concerned about the risk that diet mixers can pose for alcohol-impaired driving. “In this study, subjects felt the same whether they drank the diet or regular mixed alcoholic beverage,” said Marczinski. “However, they were above the limit of .08 when they consumed the diet mixer, and below it when they drank the regular mixed beverage. Choices to drink and drive, or engage in any other risky behavior, often depend on how people feel, rather than some objective measurement of impairment. Now alcohol researchers who are interested in prevention have something new to consider when developing or modifying intervention programs.”

“Research on alcohol mixers is critically important for improving serving practices in on-premise drinking establishments,” he said. “About one-half of all drinking and driving incidents are estimated to occur in persons leaving these settings. This type of research can provide guidance to policy-makers interested in improving the safety of bars and nightclubs.”

“We have an obesity crisis in this country,” added Marczinski. “As such, individuals tend to be conscious about how many calories they are consuming, and they might think that mixing alcohol with diet drinks is a healthy choice. Yet the average reader needs to know that while mixing alcohol with a diet beverage mixer may limit the amount of calories being consumed, higher BrACs are a much more significant health risk than a few extra calories.”

In natural drinking settings, such as bars and nightclubs, young women are significantly more likely than young men to order drinks mixed with diet cola. This occurs because young women tend to be more weight conscious than young men. Thus, from a public health perspective, artificially sweetened alcohol mixers may place young women at greater risk for a range of problems associated with acute alcohol intoxication.

Gluten Not Linked to Increase in Celiac Disease

No clear evidence exists to support the idea that celiac disease is increasing in prevalence because farmers are growing strains of wheat that contain more gluten.

Donald D. Kasarda cites evidence that the incidence of celiac disease increased during the second half of the 20th century. Some estimates indicate that the disease is 4 times more common today. Also known as gluten intolerance, celiac disease occurs when gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye, damages the lining of the small intestine, causing a variety of symptoms. Nobody knows why the disease is increasing. One leading explanation suggests that it results from wheat breeding that led to production of wheat varieties containing higher levels of gluten.

Kasarda’s Perspective article examined the scientific evidence for that hypothesis and found that gluten levels in various varieties have changed little on average since the 1920s. Overall gluten consumption, however, has increased due to other factors. One involves increased consumption of a food additive termed “vital gluten,” which has tripled since 1977. Vital gluten is a food additive made from wheat flour, and it is added to various food products to improve their characteristics, such as texture. Overall consumption of wheat flour also has increased, so that people in 2000 consumed 2.9 pounds more gluten annually than in 1970, nearly a 25 percent increase.

No More Garlic Breath?

According to a study published by the Institute of Food Technologist (IFT), researchers from the department of Food Science and Technology at The Ohio State University discovered that drinking milk while eating garlic-heavy food can reduce the malodorous breath associated with garlic consumption.

Both fat-free and whole milk lowered the concentration of volatile odor-emitting compounds from garlic in the nose and mouth. Due to its higher fat content, whole milk was found to be more effective. Although drinking milk after eating a garlic-infused meal can still help, the study found that drinking it during the meal will have better results.

Garlic is an excellent source of magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and selenium and is reported to have many health benefits. It also contains a high amount of sulfur compounds, which are responsible for the characteristic odor and flavor of garlic, as well as bad breath.