Beets Are Good For The Brain

A new study suggests that a daily dose of beet juice boosts blood flow to the brain, keeping your mind sharp and potentially creating a safeguard against dementia as you age.

Researchers with Wake Forest University's Translational Science Center; Fostering Independence in Aging took a closer look at beet juice because it is rich in nitrate. The body turns nitrate into nitrite, which helps to open up blood vessels and improve blood flow.

"One of the great things about nitrite is that it seems to head straight for the places that need more oxygen supplied by increased blood flow," said Gary Miller, associate professor in Wake Forest University's Department of Health and Exercise Science and one of the senior investigators on the project. "I think these results are consistent and encouraging - that good diet consisting of a lot of fruits and vegetables can contribute to overall good health."

This study builds on previous research showing that a diet that includes beets and other nitrate-rich foods can lower blood pressure and improve exercise performance. But this is the first to look at how beets might affect the brain.

"There are areas in the brain that become poorly perfused as you age, and that's believed to be associated with dementia and poor cognition," said Daniel Kim-Shapiro, director of Wake Forest University's Translational Science Center; Fostering Independence in Aging.

High concentrations of nitrates are found in beets, as well as in celery, cabbage and other leafy green vegetables like spinach and some lettuce.

The research findings are available online in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry, the peer-reviewed journal of the Nitric Oxide Society and will be available in print soon. The National Institutes of Health contributed funding for this research.

Kitchen Tip: Cutting Boards

From Harold McGee, food scientist and writer whose new book, Keys To Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Food and Recipes, landed on shelves recently.

On wooden vs. plastic cutting boards: "It turns out that wooden cutting boards are good in a couple of ways — they're porous so they tend to soak up juices from cutting meats and fish, for example, and that carries the bacteria down into the cutting board where they're not at the surface anymore. And woods often contain anti-bacterial compounds in them so there's kind of a natural antibiotic in the surface of the wood. Plastic cutting boards are easier to clean and are safer to put in the dishwasher, for example, but they also will tend to develop scars and bacteria will lodge in the scars and cause problems later. So I actually have a couple of each and use both. When a plastic cutting board develops scars, I replace it."

One Nation Under Salt: New Study Finds National Overdose

Despite general wide-spread knowledge that consuming too much salt is unhealthy--and despite the plethora of low-salt alternatives on supermarket shelves--new research finds Americans still eat prodigious quantities of salt, enough to easily be a cause of the national epidemic of hyper-tension (abnormally high blood pressure.)

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health--including celebrity doc, Walter Willett--took a simple approach. The study looked at multiple studies detailing per-person 24 hour urinary excretion of sodium over a 46 year period in the U.S. Because 95% of daily dietary sodium intake is excreted in the urine, the researchers were able to reasonably estimate sodium intake  from the data. And what they found was an alarmingly large scale over-consumption of salt.

The Harvard group found that on average Americans have been consuming more than twice the amount of sodium recommended for maintaining health by the Institute of Medicine. The recommended daily intake of sodium is just over half a teaspoon at 1500 mg (for young adults) and 1300 mg (for adults ages 50-70.) According to the study, adults are actually eating closer to 3712 mg of sodium per day, which is the equivalent of about 1.5 teaspoons. Our blood pressure rises just thinking about it. 

San Francisco To Ban Happy Meal Toys

From the Los Angeles Times

The city's board of supervisors votes to forbid restaurants from giving away toys with meals that have high levels of calories, sugar and fat.

By Sharon Bernstein

San Francisco's board of supervisors has voted, by a veto-proof margin, to ban most of McDonald's Happy Meals as they are now served in the restaurants. The measure will make San Francisco the first major city in the country to forbid restaurants from offering a free toy with meals that contain more than set levels of calories, sugar and fat.

The ordinance would also require restaurants to provide fruits and vegetables with all meals for children that come with toys.

"We're part of a movement that is moving forward an agenda of food justice," said Supervisor Eric Mar, who sponsored the measure. "From San Francisco to New York City, the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country is making our kids sick, particularly kids from low income neighborhoods, at an alarming rate. It's a survival issue and a day-to-day issue."

Just after the vote, McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said, "We are extremely disappointed with today's decision. It's not what our customers want, nor is it something they asked for."

The ban, already enacted in a similar measure by Santa Clara County, was opposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was vying to be lieutenant governor in Tuesday's election. But because the measure was passed by eight votes — one more than needed to override a veto — his opposition doesn't matter unless one of the supervisors changes his or her mind after the promised veto.

Under the ordinance, scheduled to take effect in December 2011, restaurants may include a toy with a meal if the food and drink combined contain fewer than 600 calories, and if less than 35% of the calories come from fat.

Over the last few weeks, the proposed ban caused a stir online and on cable television, with supporters arguing that it would help protect children from obesity, and opponents seeing it as the latest example of the nanny state gone wild.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, whose swing vote provided the veto-proof majority, said critics should not dismiss the legislation as a nutty effort by San Franciscans. "I do believe the industry is going to take note of this. I don't care how much they say, 'It's San Francisco, they're wacked out there.' "

Proud, the McDonald's spokeswoman, said the city was out of step with the mainstream on the issue.

"Public opinion continues to be overwhelmingly against this misguided legislation," she said. "Parents tell us it's their right and responsibility — not the government's — to make their own decisions and to choose what's right for their children."

McDonald's is not the only fast-food chain to offer toys with children's meals, but because it is so prominent the company has become a key face of opposition to the ban.

Daniel Conway, spokesman for the California Restaurant Assn., bemoaned the ordinance's passage and contrasted it with San Franciscans' exuberant feelings after the Giants won the world series on Monday night.

"One day you're world champions, and the next day, no toys for you," Conway said.

He said the industry could respond in a number of ways to the ordinance. Some might continue to include toys but charge separately for them. Others might reformulate their meals so that they comply with the law. Restaurants might also simply stop offering children's meals altogether, he said.

Proud said the company does offer more healthful menu options, including apple slices that can be ordered with kids' meals instead of French fries.

The vote was held the same day that McDonald's reintroduced nationwide its McRib sandwich, a pressed pork patty that gets half its calories from fat and has a cult-like legion of fans.

Mar said it would lead the fast-food giant and other restaurants to provide more healthful food for kids. The ban, he said, was crucial to the fight against childhood obesity and the illnesses that go along with it, including diabetes and the risk of heart problems and stroke. The cost of fighting those diseases, he said, will be in the billions.

"It's astronomical how much it's going to cost if we don't address it," Mar said. "It's incredible the crisis that's going to hit us."

Celery, Peppers Protect Memory

A plant compound called luteolin (loo-tee-oh-lin), prevalent in celery, carrots and peppers, inhibits the production of memory damaging inflammatory molecules in the brain, a new study finds. The researchers at the University of Illinois, who have spent nearly a decade researching the anti-inflammatory properties of plant compounds, were able to show that luteolin improves cognitive health by acting directly on specialized (microglial) cells to reduce their production of inflammatory molecules in the brain. Apparently, by eating the luteolin-rich diet, elderly mice in the Illinois study were able to regain the cognitive abilities of young mice. The reserch has not been duplicated in people, but in the meantime, it's yet another incentive to eat vegetables.