This is a salad lover’s delight! Thinly cut strips of purple cabbage with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or Greek olive oil can create a fun, healthy dish. Purple cabbage is also pickled and added to stir-fries!

Health benefit: Cabbage is a great store of vitamin C and vitamin K. The rich deep colour of this vegetable is due to a high concentration of anthocyanin polyphenols (strong dietary antioxidants, possessing anti-inflammatory properties), making it have even more phytonutrients than a green cabbage. A few studies also show that anthocyanins may help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. It is rich in anti-oxidants which makes skin supple and clear.

How to store: Keep the purple cabbage in a plastic bag and place it in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh for up to two weeks.

Here is a quick fix recipe:

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Ingredients:

Purple cabbage, thinly sliced: About 8 cups

Butter: 2 tbsp

Sugar: 3 tbsp

Balsamic vinegar: 1/4 cup

Sultanas and pine nuts: A handful

Method:

Take a large saucepan and melt the butter in it. Now, add the cabbage and saute this for a few minutes. Sprinkle the sugar and add the vinegar. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Take off the heat, season, add the sultanas and nuts. Serve. By Ismat Tahseen, The Times of India

Researchers have long linked consumption of tree nuts, despite their significant fat content, to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and even Parkinson’s disease. Now comes evidence that they also improve cognition in general and specific ways. Most have high concentrations of vitamin E, the B vitamins (including folate), antioxidants, minerals such as magnesium, as well as omega-3 fats, all of which support myriad functions of the nervous system.

Test best

Crack open some walnuts and improve your ability to think critically. Researchers find that eating a high concentration of walnuts (half a cup a day) boosts inferential verbal reasoning, especially the ability to distinguish true from false. An array of compounds in walnuts, including vitamin E, folate, melatonin and varied antioxidative polyphenols, protect the central nervous system and speed synaptic transmission. The significant supply of alpha-linolenic acid is essential for stability of neuronal membranes, through which all neuronal actions transpire.

Memory tracks

Although not strictly tree nuts — they are the seed of a fruit related to plums — almonds may help save your memory. Mice rendered temporarily amnesiac were more apt to remember their way around a maze 24 hours later if they first consumed an almond paste.

The evidence suggests that almonds slow the decline in cognitive abilities linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Investigators attribute the memory effects to the presence of the essential amino acid phenylalanine and L-carnitine, believed to boost neurotransmitters essential to memory.

Waist not

A hefty handful of Brazil nuts can spare the obese the vascular damage associated with adiposity. An excess of fat tissue stimulates low-grade inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which can lead to cardiovascular disease.

With high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and bioactive substances that combat inflammation — selenium, phenolic compounds, folate and magnesium among them — Brazil nuts improved microcirculation, lowered cholesterol levels and normalized blood lipid profiles without causing weight gain in 17 obese female adolescents.

Almond joy

For the world’s 20 million diabetics, almonds may improve blood-sugar control while decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. In a randomized controlled study, a team of Chinese and American researchers found that four weeks of an almond- augmented diet improved blood lipid levels, abolished a postprandial rise in glucose levels and reduced body fat in 20 patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The magnesium, fiber, monounsaturated fat and polyphenols in the nuts all contribute to the improvements in glycemic control.

Extended action

Pecans may slow the rate of age-related motor degeneration. University of Massachusetts scientists fed two versions of a nut-rich diet to rats specifically bred to develop motor-neuron decline. All pecan-fed animals outperformed control animals on subsequent tests of activity, and those fed the highest percentage of nuts outran them all. The researchers believe the high concentration of antioxidant vitamin E shields neurons from degenerative conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. By Julie Bodenmann, Buffalo News

The results of a two-year dietary study led by Hans Guldbrand, general practitioner, and Fredrik Nystrom, professor of internal medicine at the Linkoping University, Sweden, show that this kind of diet could have a better effect on blood sugar levels and blood lipids.

Diabetes millitus type-2 is a lifelong disease in which there are high-levels of blood sugar (glucose). Diabetes is caused by a problem in the way your body makes or uses insulin. Insulin is needed to move glucose into cells, where it is stored and later used for energy.

In type-2 diabetes, your fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond correctly to insulin. Consequently, blood sugar does not get into these cells to be stored for energy. Increased fat also makes it harder for your body to use insulin the correct way.

The study is based on 61 patients who were randomised into two groups, where they followed either a low-carbohydrate (high fat) diet or a low-fat diet, the journal Diabetologia reports.

In both groups, the participants lost approximately four kg on an average. Besides, a clear improvement in the glycaemic (blood sugar) control was seen in the low-carbohydrate group after six months, according to a Linkoping statement.

Despite the increased fat intake with a larger portion of saturated fatty acids, the HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol content increased on the high-fat diet.

In the high-fat diet, 50 percent of the energy came from fat, 20 percent from carbohydrates, and 30 percent from protein. For the low-fat group, the distribution was 30 percent from fat, 55-60 percent from carbohydrates, and 10-15 percent from protein.

The participants were recruited from two primary health care centres and met for four group meetings during the first year of the study. All 61 participated in the study for the follow-up.

“In contrast to most other studies of this type, we lost no patients at all, which vouches for the good quality of our data,” Guldbrand says. Khaleej Times

Banana: This is one fruit that’s abundantly available in India all through the year. We know it’s a good source of iron, magnesium and potassium and helps reduce menstrual cramps. The effect of banana on skin too is not something that can be ignored. Banana is rich in vitamin A, B and E and hence works as an anti-aging agent. A fresh mashed banana facial can do wonders to your skin.

Lemon: Lemon juice is an important ingredient in most Indian recipes. This is also a fruit of all seasons and almost always finds place on your kitchen shelf or refrigerator. With its vitamin C content, its juice will keep your skin beautiful. A glass of warm water with a tsp of honey and a dash of lemon juice on an empty stomach every morning is a great skin cleanser. With its astringent properties, it can be used to lighten the skin tone and also diminish acne scars. Rub the inside of a lemon peel on your elbow remove dark spots. Mix lemon and honey and use it as a natural bleach on your skin.

Apple: An apple a day keeps the doctor away is cliched, but its health benefits are undisputable. Apple’s antioxidant property prevents cell and tissue damage. Studies by nutritionists have shown that apples contain abundant amounts of elastin and collagen that help keep the skin young. Applying a mixture of mashed apple, honey, rose water and oatmeal can act as a great exfoliating mask on your skin.

Orange: Rich in vitamin C that improves skin texture. Like apple, orange too contains collagen that slows skin aging process. Rub the insides of orange on your skin to tighten the skin. Oranges can be dried and powdered and used as a natural scrub. Like lemon, oranges too help clear skin blemishes.

Papaya: The benefits of this fruit on skin have perhaps been talked about since the time of our ancestors. Papaya is rich in antioxidants and contain a special enzyme called papain that can kill dead cells and cure skin impurities. A glass of papaya milk or just applying the flesh of papaya on your skin can do wonders to your skin.

Mangoes: Rightly called the king of fruits for not just its taste but also for health benefits. The soft pulpy fruit has an amazing effect on skin too. Rich in vitamin-A and antioxidants, it fights skin aging, regenerates skin cells and restores the elasticity of skin. By Reshmi AR, The Times of India

Here’s the skinny (well, not really): Virtually all commercially-available chickens now have what many call the “obese gene,” which makes birds gain weight quickly to speed up production from birth to slaughter. That, combined with no exercise and a constant supply of high-energy (caloric) food, makes today’s chicken the opposite of lean: The amount of fat in modern chicken may be five or even 10 times what it used to be, according to a UK-based study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition. So if you serve a whole chicken to your family like grandma did, you may be serving them 10 times as much fat than the days of yesteryear. That’s a whole lotta fat, and big trouble for the waistline.

The nonprofit Farm Forward explains that this is another consequence of inhumane factory farming.

“This type of chicken husbandry needs to be reviewed with regard to its implications for animal welfare and human nutrition,” wrote lead researcher Dr. Yiqun Wang. “The cocktail of gene selection for fast weight gain, lack of exercise and high-energy food available 24 hours a day, is a simple and well-understood recipe for obesity.”

Farm Forward is on to something important, and they are taking the research even further. They teamed up with Kansas State University to compare the fat and protein content of heritage birds to commercial ones found in the grocery store. KSU professor Dr. Liz Boyle started the research in February with heritage chickens from Frank Reese Jr. of Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in central Kansas. Heritage birds are the genetic breeds that existed before the days of industrialized meat. Reese’s chickens take at least 120 days to mature. Most all chickens available at the grocery store take about 40.

Fast-growing chickens go right alongside chicken welfare problems, explains Farm Forward, so the worse the conditions they are raised in (cramped and barely able to move or support their unnatural weight), the fatter (and more fattening) the chicken meat is. For chickens raised in factory farms (99 percent of the meat at market is from factory farms), their pitiless fate seems to be accompanied by a drastic rise in fat grams. “The fat went from less than 2 grams to 23 grams of animal fat per serving, twice as much fat than ice cream,” says physician and author Dr. Michael Greger, who has his own interesting commentary on Dr. Wang’s study. “So now chicken has 10 times more fat and ten times more calories, so that could explain why chicken has been tied to human abdominal girth.”

Ten times more fat and 10 times more calories can be related to a fat belly, that’s for sure. It makes sense that our crisis of obesity might very well be closely tied to the daily consumption of chicken by many millions of Americans.

Farm Forward and KSU plan on conducting more studies when this one is complete. “The consequences of disregarding animal welfare go far beyond the question of cruelty,” Dr. Aaron Gross of the University of San Diego and CEO of Farm Forward explained to me. “What we are discovering more and more is that many of the environmental and public health problems with meat are intimately connected with animal welfare.” So basically, what’s bad for the chickens is bad for us; it’s all related.

We’ve all seen chicken portrayed as the low-fat, heart-healthy alternative to red meat for years, but it no longer adds up. You might want to lean away from eating birds and lean toward more plant-based options of protein like black beans, lentils, tofu, chickpeas and whole grains. No cruelty, far less fat, zero cholesterol. It’s a sensible swap for the waistline and good news for the birds!  By Kathy Freston, Huffington Post

The finding comes from an analysis of 41 past studies on the link between fish in the diet and new diagnoses and deaths from colorectal cancer.

“People who rarely eat fish may experience health benefits in a variety of areas — heart disease, reproductive and now colon cancer — by increasing their fish consumption somewhat,” said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, a professor of environmental and occupational medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

“If you eat fish very frequently, it’s not clear whether your benefit continues to go up (by eating even more),” he told Reuters Health.

And although the new study focused specifically on fresh fish, the authors noted they were unable to pinpoint what types of fish people ate or the manner in which fish was prepared in the prior studies.

“Cooking temperatures might affect the risk of colorectal cancer,” Dr. Jie Liang of Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases in Xi’an, China, who worked on the study, wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

Liang cited recent evidence that suggests eating lots of meat and fish barbecued or grilled over high heat may actually be tied to an increased cancer risk.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 143,000 Americans were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2007, the most recent year with available data. The disease affects the large intestine and is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States.

For the new report, Liang and his colleagues combined results from 41 studies published between 1990 and 2011 that measured fish consumption and tracked cancer diagnoses. That included research from the U.S., Norway, Japan, Finland and elsewhere.

Overall, regularly eating fish was tied to a 12 percent lower risk of developing or dying of colon or rectal cancer, the researchers found.

That was after taking into account study participants’ age, alcohol and red meat intake, family history of cancer and other risk factors.

The protective effect tied to fish consumption was stronger for rectal cancer than colon cancer.

People who ate the highest amounts of fish had a 21 percent lower risk of getting rectal cancer than those who ate the least. That compared to just a four percent lower risk of colon cancer — which was so small, it could have been due to chance.

“Rectal cancer is much rarer, so we’d rather have a larger reduction (in risk) for colon cancer,” Gochfeld said.

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Liang’s team did not investigate why eating fish may have a positive effect on colorectal cancer risk. The study also can’t prove that it’s the fish, itself, that was responsible for a lower cancer risk in some participants.

“It doesn’t tell us whether the benefit you get from fish has to do with specific nutrients in the fish, or with the fact that people who tend to eat fish tend to adopt other healthful lifestyles, such as avoiding red meat or processed meats,” said Gochfeld, who was not involved in the research.

If fish indeed is behind the lower colorectal cancer risk, the added benefit could be coming from the omega-3 essential fatty acids found in certain fish such as salmon and sardines, Gochfeld said.

But even if the high omega-3 levels in fatty fish have a protective effect, it’s unclear whether or not the same benefit extends to supplements such as fish-oil capsules, he said. By Aparna Narayanan, Yahoo Daily News

Serving Information

MyFitnessPal provides nutritional data for an avocado. This information is for the raw flesh of a medium avocado, and doesn’t include the large pit inside the avocado.

Calories

An avocado contains a total of 322 calories. Fat provides 261 calories, carbohydrates account for 45 calories and protein contributes the remaining 16 calories. This provides 16.1 percent of the daily value for calories, assuming a daily diet of 2,000 calories.

Protein and Carbohydrates

A serving of avocado provides 4 g of protein, or 8 percent of the daily value for protein. Avocados also contain 17 g of total carbohydrates per serving, which includes 13 g of dietary fiber. This provides about 6 percent of the daily value carbohydrates and 52 percent of the daily value for dietary fiber.

Fat

Avocados contain 29 g of fat per serving, including 4 g of saturated fat and 25 g of saturated fat. This provides about 45 percent of the daily value for total fat and 20 percent of the daily value for saturated fat. Avocados contain no cholesterol.

Vitamins and Minerals

An avocado contains 975 mg of potassium, or about 21 percent of the daily value for potassium. It also has 14 mg of sodium, which is less than 1 percent of the daily value for sodium. An avocado also contains about 34 percent of the daily value for vitamin C. Additional nutrients in an avocado include 6 percent of the daily value for iron and 2 percent of the daily value for calcium. Joy Online

The study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers is the first research to show that a small protein, apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III), that sometimes resides on the surface of HDL cholesterol may increase the risk of heart disease and that HDL cholesterol without this protein may be especially heart protective.

“This finding, if confirmed in ongoing studies, could lead to better evaluation of risk of heart disease in individuals and to more precise targeting of treatments to raise the protective HDL or lower the unfavourable HDL with apoC-III,” said Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at HSPH and senior author of the study.

A high level of HDL cholesterol is strongly predictive of a low incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). But trials of drugs that increase HDL cholesterol have not consistently shown decreases in CHD, leading to the hypothesis that HDL cholesterol may contain both protective and non-protective components.

ApoC-III, a proinflammatory protein, resides on the surface of some lipoproteins-both HDL and low-density lipoproteins, or LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

The researchers, led by Sacks and Majken Jensen, research associate in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH, examined whether the existence or absence of apoC-III on HDL cholesterol affected the “good” cholesterol’s heart-protective qualities, and whether its existence could differentiate HDL cholesterol into two subclasses-those which protect against the risk of future heart disease and those which do not.

Blood samples collected in 1989 and 1990 from 32,826 women in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study were examined, along with blood samples collected from 1993 to 1995 from 18,225 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. During 10 to 14 years of follow-up, 634 cases of coronary heart disease were documented and matched with controls for age, smoking, and date of blood drawing.

The researchers compared plasma concentrations of total HDL, HDL that has apoC-III, and HDL without apoC-III as predictors of the risk of CHD.

After adjusting for age, smoking status and other dietary and lifestyle cardiovascular risk factors, the researchers found that two different subclasses of HDL have opposite associations with the risk of CHD in apparently healthy men and women.

The major HDL type, which lacks apoC-III, had the expected heart-protective association with CHD. But the small fraction (13pc) of HDL cholesterol that has apoC-III present on its surface was paradoxically associated with a higher, not lower, risk of future CHD.

Those men and women who had HDL apoC-III in the highest 20 percent of the population had a 60 percent increased risk of CHD.

The results suggested that measuring HDL apoC-III and HDL without apoC-III rather than the simpler measure of total HDL may be a better gauge of heart disease risk (or of HDL’s protective capacity).

“Reduction in HDL-apoC-III by diet or drug treatments may become an indicator of efficacy,” said Jensen. Newstrack India

This could be because eating very quickly encourages weight gain, which can trigger the illness.

Scientists in Lithuania presented their finding at the International Congress of Endocrinology and European Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy, the Daily Mail reported.

They looked at 702 people, including 234 who had just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

They all filled in a detailed questionnaire about their lifestyles, which included sections on diets, exercise and whether they smoked.

Overweight women miss out on jobs because of ‘fat discrimination’ne question asked them if they ate faster, more slowly or at the same speed as others.

They were also measured and weighed to calculate their body mass index, which determines whether they are obese.

The researchers found that those who admitted they ate more quickly than most other people were two-and-a-half times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

They claimed that this trend existed even once they had accounted for other causes such as obesity, smoking, diet and a family history of the illness.

“The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing globally and becoming a world pandemic. It appears to involve interaction between susceptible genetic backgrounds and environmental factors,” said lead researcher Dr Lina Radzeviciene from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

“It’s important to identify modifiable risk factors that may help people reduce their chances of developing the disease,” she noted.

The scientists did not explain why eating fast appeared to be linked to type 2 diabetes.

But obesity has long been recognised as one of the main causes of the illnesses.

Previous studies have found that people who eat quickly also eat more, and consequently are more likely to be overweight.

Experts think this is because their digestive system doesn’t have a chance to send a signal to the brain that it is full.

But David Speigelhalter, a professor in the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, warned that the study was too small to be meaningful.

“This is one of those many small studies that raise an interesting question but don’t prove causation. It is a huge and unjustified jump to say that eating slower reduces your risk of getting diabetes,” he stated. Newstrack India