0 Prenatal DHA reduces early preterm birth low birth weight

University of Kansas researchers have found that the infants of mothers who were given 600 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA during pregnancy weighed more at birth and were less likely to be very low birth weight and born before 34 weeks gestation than infants of mothers who were given a placebo. This result greatly strengthens the case for using the dietary supplement during pregnancy.

The results are from the first five years of a 10-year, double-blind randomized controlled trial to be published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It is also available online. A followup of this sample of infants is ongoing to determine whether prenatal DHA nutritional supplementation will benefit children’s intelligence and school readiness.

“A reduction in early preterm and very low birth weight delivery could have clear clinical and public health significance,” said Susan Carlson, A.J. Rice Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at the KU Medical Center, who directed the study with John Colombo, KU professor of psychology and director of the Life Span Institute.

“We believe that supplementing U.S. women with DHA could safely increase mean birth weight and gestational age to numbers that are closer to other developed countries such as Norway and Australia,” she said.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) occurs naturally in cell membranes with the highest levels in brain cells, but levels can be increased by diet or supplements. An infant obtains DHA from his or her mother in utero and postnatally from human milk, but the amount received depends upon the mother’s DHA status.

“U.S. women typically consume less DHA than women in most of the developed world,” said Carlson.

During the first five years of the study, children of women enrolled in the study received multiple developmental assessments at regular intervals throughout infancy and at 18 months of age. In the next phase of the study, the children will receive twice-yearly assessments until they are 6 years old. The researchers will measure developmental milestones that occur in later childhood and are linked to lifelong health and welfare.

Previous research has established the effects of postnatal feeding of DHA on infant cognitive and intellectual development, but DHA is accumulated most rapidly in the fetal brain during pregnancy, said Colombo. “That’s why we are so interested in the effects of DHA taken prenatally, because we will really be able to see how this nutrient affects development over the long term.”

0 Low Glycemic Index Diet Vs High Cereal Fiber Diet

Which of these two diets - a low-glycemic-index (LGI) diet or a high-cereal-fiber (HCF) diet - do you think would produce the better blood sugar control?

Researchers from Toronto set out to answer that question. Their results were published in the December 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association:

Effect of a Low-Glycemic Index or a High-Cereal Fiber Diet on Type 2 Diabetes

Ill give you the answer up front: The low-glycemic-index diet was better, but only moderately.

The 210 participants with type 2 diabetes followed their respective diets for 6 months, at the end of which:

For those who followed the LGI diet:

• HbA1c went down by 0.50 (from 7.14 to 6.64)
  
• HDL went up by 1.7 mg/dl

For those who followed the HCF diet:

• HbA1c went down by 0.18 (from 7.07 to 6.89)
  
• HDL went down by 0.2 mg/dl (HDL is the good cholesterol, you want this to go up)

How Did The Diets Differ?

Low-Glycemic-Index Diet

"The following foods were emphasized: low-glycemic index breads (including pumpernickel, rye pita, and quinoa and flaxseed) and breakfast cereals (including Red River Cereal [hot cereal made of bulgur and flax], large flake oatmeal, oat bran, and Bran Buds [ready-to-eat cereal made of wheat bran and psyllium fiber]), pasta, parboiled rice, beans, peas, lentils, and nuts."

Fruit in the LGI diet leaned toward temperate: apples, pears, oranges, peaches, cherries, and berries.

High-Cereal-Fiber Diet

"Participants were advised to take the "brown" option (whole grain breads; whole grain breakfast cereals; brown rice; potatoes with skins; and whole wheat bread, crackers, and breakfast cereals)."

Fruit in the HCF diet leaned toward tropical: bananas, mangos, guavas, grapes, raisins, watermelon, and cantaloupe

Both Diets

Everyone was advised "to avoid foods such as pancakes, muffins, donuts, white buns, bagels, rolls, cookies, cakes, popcorn, French fries, and chips."
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0 Top Ten High Fiber Low Calorie Foods

BY Erika Yigzaw, ACHS CIO
Are there magic foods that we can eat all day and still lose weight? Not really. But there are some foods that are relatively low in calories yet have high nutritive value, either because they are high in fiber, phytonutrients such as antioxidants, or high in protein. These are foods to keep handy in the pantry, refrigerator, or garden and eat daily. Train your family – particularly children – to snack on these top ten foods rather than chips and sodas and you’ll be ahead of the nutrition curve before you know it!

To pick these top ten foods, I looked at nutritional value, energy density[1], and volume. I want to focus on foods that provide a lot of bang for the buck (i.e., keep us full and have high nutritional value with fewer calories than other choices). Fruits and vegetables with lots of water are often lower energy density[2] , but my primary criteria for the list is fiber. Why? Fiber is critical. Remember your grandmother telling you to eat more “roughage”? Well she was right! We need at least 25 grams a day, and ideally 35 grams a day, for a healthy bowel. I think the correlation between high fiber diets and lower cancer rates is not just from fiber but is synergistic, since most high fiber diets are high in fruits and vegetables, which are also high in antioxidants and other phytonutrients. But, fiber is clearly also very important and few Americans get enough.

Here is my current top ten list of high fiber low calorie foods:

1. Raspberries rank as one of the highest high fiber low calorie foods, at 8.0 grams of fiber and just 64 calories per serving (1-cup) (1 calorie per raspberry!)[3, 4]. They are delicious and we can grow our own here in Oregon! Yay!
2. Pears have about 5.1 grams of fiber and only 51 calories for a medium sized pear[5]. They are easy to pack in a lunch and store well. They are also easy to grow here in Oregon.
3. Apples provide about 4.4 grams of fiber, at roughly 55 calories for a small apple. Choose organic as apples are on the EWG dirty dozen list 2012[6]. Apples are easy to grow here in Oregon and many parts of the US, with the newer columnar varieties letting you grow pounds of fruit in a small garden or even a container!
4. Blueberries provide about 3.5 grams of fiber, and roughly 40 calories for 50 berries. Choose organic as blueberries are on the EWG dirty dozen list 2012[7]. Again, blueberries grow well here in the Pacific North West, although take a few years to fruit well. Mulch with wood chips as they love acidic soil.
5. Strawberries provide about 3.3 grams of fiber and average about 2 calories per strawberry. Choose organic as strawberries are on the EWG dirty dozen list 2012[8]. Grow even a few strawberry plants in a barrel or tuck them into ornamental garden beds where the foliage stays a lovely dark green throughout the summer while providing you with berries!
6. Black beans – 1 cup has 15 grams of fiber – along with 15 grams of protein – and just 227 calories[9]
7. Whole-wheat spaghetti weighs in at 6.3 g of fiber per serving and approximately 174 calories per 1-cup serving (always check the label as brands vary)
8. One cup of oatmeal provides 4.0 grams of fiber and about 60 calories per serving
9. Whole wheat or multigrain breads offer 1.9 grams per slice and about 65 calories per slice (always check the label as brands vary)
10. Cooked peas, at a whopping 8.8 g of fiber and a low 67 calories per cup serving size. Turn a cup of peas into instant soup with a stick blender and some vegetable stock.

So that’s our top ten, but there are some other notable additions:

• Boiled turnip greens, which offer about 5.0 grams of fiber per cup sized serving and about 48 calories
• Raw carrots offer 1.7 grams of fiber and 21 calories for a small carrot. Raw, fresh carrots are about 88 percent water.
• Broccoli has 5.1 g of fiber and about 52 calories per cup. Steamed broccoli is best for cholesterol lowering benefits. 100 calories of broccoli gives you 10 grams of fiber!
• Grapefruit is about 90 percent water, and one contains approximately 3.4 grams of fiber – more than 13 percent of your daily fiber needs – and about the same amount as a cup of strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower or beets. The amount of fiber in one grapefruit exceeds that found in a banana or in 1 cup of celery or bell peppers. An entire grapefruit has just 78 calories. Grapefruit also contains vitamin C and pectin[10]. Good news too – grapefruit is on the EWG clean fifteen list – meaning they are one of the 15 produce items lowest in pesticides[11]!
• Raisins, which provide 1.6 grams of fiber per 1.5 ounce serving and roughly 42 calories for a 5-ounce box. Note that grapes have more volume for the same fiber and calories so are an excellent choice! Grapes are another dirty dozen item so choose organic!
• Just one cup of barley has 13.6 grams of fiber in 270 calories – add a cup of barley to your vegetable soup for a hearty winter way to increase fiber! Plus barley is a great source of selenium[12]!

What are foods to leave out?

• Canned baked beans – a favorite in New Zealand and the United Kingdom – pack a lot of fiber per serving, but also lots of sugar and sodium.
• Processed foods – yes a processed food with added fiber is better than one without, but stick to the foods that mother nature made high in fiber for optimum health.
• Act: Using your favorite app (mine is MyFitnessPal available on the app store and at myfitnesspal.com) track your food intake and see how much fiber you’re really getting! Try a fiber day and see how much you can pack in!

Share: What are your favorite foods? Check their fiber and calorie content and add a comment!

0 How to make a Healthy Low Carb Cheesecake

 

One of the great things about the low carb diet is that you are allowed to eat cheese. Cheese is low in carbs. This low carb cheese cake makes about 8 servings (yeah, right – we low carbers know that a serving is a lot bigger than what the cook books say it is, right). But even at that, this low carb cheese cake weighs in at aournd 3 to 4 grams of carbohydrate per serving, so if you’re not in induction and have been doing well, you might be tempted to eat more than one serving. In fact, you may not be able to resist having more than one.
The ingredients are very simple:

• 350g soft cream cheese
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (some brands just say heavy cream)
• 3 individual packets of Splenda sweetener
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (use the real – not imitation)

Now, you might be tempted to open the cream cheese and just eat that by itself because it tastes so good, but don’t. Save it for the low carb cheesecake you’re going to make. Just follow these directions:
Mix all of the ingredients well except for the heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. It’s probably tempting to use a beating, but don’t. It can break down the cream and it won’t create the fluffy peaks you need. Now, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
TIP: Folding means to use a plastic or rubber mixing spatula to go under the mixture and bring the ingredients to the top. You do this a few times to ‘blend’ the ingredients, but not to ‘mix’ them well. Mixing them too well will not produce good results.
Now, back to the low carb cheesecake dessert. After everything is mixed and blended, put it all in a large glass bowl or a small glass pie plate. Cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for an hour or more.
If you are not on induction, there are a few other goodies you can consider adding to your low carb cheese cake. You can top it with a small amount of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and even rhubarb. Another good topping is sugar free low carb jam. If you like them, you can try slices of lemon or lime as a topping.
But in reality, you will probably find this delicious low carb cheesecake demanding to not be disturbed by any additional fruits and sauces. It’s actually very hard to improve upon.