Study: Red Meat Consumption Increases Risk Of Stroke In Women

From Reuters:

Women who eat a lot of red meat may be putting themselves at increased risk of stroke, a new study in more than 30,000 Swedish women hints.

The study team found that those in the top tenth for red meat consumption, who ate at least 102 grams or 3.6 ounces daily, were 42 percent more likely to suffer a stroke due to blocked blood flow in the brain compared to women who ate less than 25 grams (just under an ounce) of red meat daily.

Diets heavy in red meat have been linked to a number of ill effects, including an increased risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Yet, just three studies have looked at red meat and stroke risk. One study found a link, but the others did not.

To investigate further, Dr. Susanna Larsson of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and her colleagues looked at 34,670 women 39 to 73 years old. All were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at the beginning of the study, in 1997.

During 10 years of follow-up, 1,680 of the women (4 percent) had a stroke.

Stroke caused by blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the brain -- also known as "cerebral infarction" -- was the most common type of stroke, representing 78 percent of all strokes in the study. Other types of strokes were due to bleeding in the brain, or unspecified causes.

When the researchers divided women into five groups based on how much red meat they reported eating, they found that those in the top fifth, who ate at least 86 grams daily (3 ounces) were at 22 percent greater risk of cerebral infarction than women in the bottom fifth (less than 36.5 grams, or 1.3 ounces, daily).

Women who ate the most processed meat (at least 41.3 grams, or 1.5 ounces, a day) were at 24 percent greater risk of this type of stroke than women who consumed the least (less than 12.1 grams, or less than half an ounce a day).

However, there was no link between consumption of red or processed meat and risk of other types of stroke, nor was there any relationship between fresh meat consumption or poultry consumption and any type of stroke.

Red meat increased stroke risk in non-smokers, but not smokers, and in women who didn't have diabetes, but not in women with diabetes. For non-smokers and non-diabetics in the top tenth of red meat consumption, the risk of cerebral infarction was 68 percent greater.

Several mechanisms could explain the link between red meat and processed meat and stroke risk, the researchers say.

For example, both types of meat have been tied to high blood pressure, the main cause of stroke. The iron contained in red meats might also accelerate the production of tissue-damaging free radicals. Further, Larsson and her team point out, processed meats are high in sodium, which can increase blood pressure.

Caffeinated Kids

A 12-oz can of Mountain Dew contains 54 miligrams of caffeineIt's 9AM. Do you know how much caffeine your kids have consumed? In a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that 75 percent of children surveyed consumed caffeine on a daily basis. 

Dr. William Warzak and colleagues from the University of Nebraska Medical Center surveyed the parents of over 200 children 5 to 12 years old during routine clinical visits at an urban pediatric clinic. Parents were asked to report the types and amounts of snacks and beverages their child consumed on a daily basis.

According to ScienceDaily, Dr. Warzak said, "Some children as young as five years old were consuming the equivalent of a can of soda a day." The study's authors also noticed that the older children drank more caffeinated beverages. "Children between the ages of 8 and 12 years consumed an average of 109 mg a day," Dr. Warzak explains, "the equivalent of almost 3 12-ounce cans of soda."

The study suggested that parents are often unaware of their children's actual caffeine intake. It might surprise some to discover that a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew contains 54 miligrams of caffeine. For comparison, the same size serving of Coke packs 35 mgs; Pepsi 38; Sunkist Orange Soda 41; and Sprite brings up the rear with zero mgs.

Caffeine can interfere with sleep and some studies have shown that adolescent obesity is associated with getting less than ideal amounts of sleep. In addition to high caffeine intake, reduction in sleep could be related to more hours of technology use and increased symptoms of sleep disorders, such as snoring. Poor sleep has also been associated with obesity, or high body mass index (BMI). But Amy Drescher, PhD, research specialist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, noted last year that there are many reasons that kids gain weight, and inadequate sleep is just one of them.

Update on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 11:14AM by Kathy

A study out February 14 of Energy Drink usage in teens by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that in 2007, 46 percent of the 5,448 caffeine overdoses in the United States occurred in those younger than 19. The investigators also found that 30 to 50 percent of adolescents and young adults consume energy drinks, which contain high amounts of caffeine and are unregulated.

How Much Vitamin D is In Food?

According to the National Institute of Health: "People who avoid the sun, who cover their bodies with sunscreen or clothing, or who live in the northern half of the United States during the winter months should include good sources of vitamin D in their diets or take a supplement. "

Here is a list of food sources of vitamin D from the National Institute of Health. The recommended daily intake of D is now 600 international units. A cup of fortified milk (by far the largest source of D for most Americans) contains about 100 units. Take a look at other sources of D, and you be the judge of whether or not you need a supplement.Fatty fish like mackeral contain vitamin D.

Very few foods naturally have vitamin D. Fortified foods provide most of the vitamin D in American diets.

• Fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel are among the best sources.
• Beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks provide small amounts.
• Mushrooms provide some vitamin D. In some mushrooms that are newly available in stores, the vitamin D content is being boosted by exposing these mushrooms to ultraviolet light.
• Almost all of the U.S. milk supply is fortified with 400 IU of vitamin D per quart. But foods made from milk, like cheese and ice cream, are usually not fortified.
• Vitamin D is added to many breakfast cereals and to some brands of orange juice, yogurt, margarine, and soybeverages; check the labels.

Want to Lose the Spare Tire? Learn to Cook with Herbs and Spices

The unwanted metabolic guests, hyper- and dyslipidemia--conditions in which the body's ability to metabolize fat goes haywire--are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the primary cause of death in industrialized countries. And activation of a cell signaling pathway known as PPAR (Peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor a) is involved in various mechanisms that improve these condititons and thus improve fat metabolism. Now European researchers have tested various plant extracts and their compounds to determine whether they stimulated PPAR α activity in vitro. Out of 34 tested plant extracts, nine exhibited low to moderate PPAR α transactivation, including caraway, chili pepper, nutmeg, licorice, black and white pepper, paprika, coriander, saffron, and stevia tea.

The active components of black pepper and chili pepper, piperine, and capsaicin exerted the highest fat-busting activities. (This supports previous research about chili peppers.) Resveratrol (thought to be the explanation for the"French paradox"--eating fatty foods, drinking lots of wine and staying thin) only slightly activated PPAR α. These results suggest that a diet rich in fruit, herbs, and spices provides a number of PPAR α agonists that might contribute to an improved lipid profile and cardiovascular health.

Of course, this was all done in a testube, not verified in people. But there is no harm in eating more herbs and spices--unless of course you have a bad case of acid reflux.

Top Chef: Mom And Dad

Artwork from the East Harlem School in one of the holiday windows at BarneysWhen middle schoolers from the East Harlem School in New York were asked by Barneys New York to choose their favorite chefs, nearly all of them picked either Mom or Dad. The kids seems to have stolen Barney's typically anarchic, quirky heart; their tributes to mom and dad are on display in the foodie-themed holiday windows alongside life-size images of bonafide food stars including Sandra Lee (future first lady of New York?), Mario Batali, Martha Stewart and Bobby Flay. "I felt like Margaret Mead discovering a new tribe of people," Simon Doonan, Barney's window dresser, said about putting the foodie windows together.

If the children's drawings of their favorite chefs and dishes--with titles like "My Mom's rice and beans; My Dad's soup"--are any indication, the tribal eating habits of the planet are not as bad as we think. Sure, it's a random sampling of family life, but it's an honest peek into how hard parents are working to do right by their kids--it's not easy to go home and cook after a day's work, but it sure pays off.A home-cooking triumph.

Research bears out that having warm and fuzzy feelings about family meals gives the gift of better health later in life. In one study--which evaluated middle-schooler's family meal frequency, and its effect on health five years later--having regular family meals in early adolescence (average age 12.8) was associated with increased daily intake of essential nutrients in later adolescence (average age 17.2), a time when kids begin to feed themselves outside the home more regularly. The family-meal intensive middle schoolers ate more vegetables, calcium-rich food, fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, folate and vitamins A and B(6) in high school compared to their peers who hadn't had frequent family meals in middle school. By that measure, it would be tough to find an early adolescent practice more beneficial to health than the family meal.

Part of the power of the family meal is the structure it provides in the chaos of a budding adolescent's life. In one 2008 study, the more frequently a child was engaged in less-structured meals the more that child ate for reasons other than hunger. Other research has found young adolescent women who do not eat meals with their families are at risk for being overweight in a 5-year period. Psychologists at the University of Missouri found children who watch more television and eat fewer family meals are more likely to be overweight for the first time at spring semester of third grade, irregardless of the amount of aerobic exercise they get. The evidence is abundant: Eating home-cooked meals is good for kids.

November 25th is, of course, like the Olympics of Home Cooking, when Mom and Dad better be at the top of their game. (After all, they're going to get some competition from Grandma, not to mention Uncle Claudio.) Bring on the creamed onions, smoked oyster stuffing, whipped yams, haricot verts with toasted almonds, and the mighty Bird. According the the USDA 241.9 million turkeys were produced this year, down from 273 million last year. If you can find one that has had a nice life, by all means, honor the creature with proper cooking: Temperature is key.

Harold McGee, the writer and all-around kitchen guru, checks the temperature, early and often. The final moisture level in the turkey is directly related to the temperature you cook it to. For breast meat, aim for 150 to 155°F (despite what the government says, this temperature is perfectly safe so long as you let your turkey rest for at least 15 minutes or so). For dark meat, 165°F is the goal. Check the temperature well before the expected finishing time, as any number of factors--your oven, frozen vs. fresh, etc--can affect how fast the turkey cooks. There's still time to go out and get a good meat thermometer, which McGee recommends.