In a survey that studied the eating habits of 582 college students, researchers found that many of the students weren’t even getting one serving of fruits or vegetables a day. The recommended daily intake is five servings.

The study, announced August 17 and published online in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, also found that both males and females surveyed were consuming more than 30 percent of their calories from fat. The American Dietetic Association recommends no more than 30 percent of calories come from fat over the course of a week.

One possible explanation for the lack of fruit and vegetable intake could be that students reported skipping meals frequently, researchers said.

The study also concluded that males fared marginally better than their female classmates in their consumption of fruits and vegetables, as they got about five servings a week compared to female students, who said they ate about four.

And while females had a lower fiber intake, researchers say their eating habits were generally better than their male counterparts, as they ate in dining halls more often than fast-food eateries and read nutrition labels.

The moral of the story? Good eating habits need to be taught early, says lead researcher Brad Cardinal, professor of exercise and sport science.

“We are not teaching youth how to be self-sustaining,” Cardinal said in a statement. “Home economics and nutrition classes have all but disappeared from our schools in the K-12 system. There is a fundamental lack of understanding on how to eat well in a very broad sense.”

To avoid weight gain and unhealthy eating, The Everything Healthy College Cookbook — written by a registered dietician — offers 300 quick, easy and calorie-conscious recipes like Asian chicken salad, mango citrus salad and fresh tomato with angel hair pasta.

Cooking Light magazine also offers students tips on how to avoid packing on the pounds and meeting their nutritional requirements in their online piece, “Avoiding the Freshman 15.” Yahoo Daily News

A study has shown that compounds found in the fruit protect cells from the ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun – the  leading environmental cause of skin cancer.

UV rays increase the levels of reactive oxygen species – harmful molecules which damage the cells – in the skin.

Scientists from the University of Barcelona and the Spanish National Research Council have shown that substances called flavonoids extracted from grapes can prevent these from forming in cells exposed to UV rays.

Marta Cascante, a biochemist at the University of Barcelona and director of the research project, said: ‘These encouraging results should be taken into consideration… to develop new photo- protection skin products.’

Cosmetics and drugs containing grape compounds are already available, but the way they act on cells has not been well understood until now.

Dr Cascante, whose report was published in the Journal of  Agricultural and Food Chemistry, added: ‘This study supports the idea of using these products to protect the skin from cell  damage and death caused by solar radiation.’ By Sophie Borland, The Daily Mail

About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.

Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said.

Chinese regulations don’t forbid the drug, and it is allowed in the U.S. on kiwi fruit and grapes. But the report underscores how farmers in China are abusing both legal and illegal chemicals, with many farms misusing pesticides and fertilizers.

Wang Liangju, a professor with College of Horticulture at Nanjing Agricultural University who has been to Danyang since the problems began to occur, said that forchlorfenuron is safe and effective when used properly.

He told The Associated Press that the drug had been used too late into the season, and that recent heavy rain also raised the risk of the fruit cracking open. But he said the variety of melon also played a role.

“If it had been used on very young fruit, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Wang said. “Another reason is that the melon they were planting is a thin-rind variety and these kind are actually nicknamed the ‘exploding melon’ because they tend to split.”

Farmer Liu Mingsuo ended up with eight acres (three hectares) of ruined fruit and told CCTV that seeing his crop splitting open was like a knife cutting his heart.

“On May 7, I came out and counted 80 (burst watermelons) but by the afternoon it was 100,” Liu said. “Two days later I didn’t bother to count anymore.”

Intact watermelons were being sold at a wholesale market in nearby Shanghai, the report said, but even those ones showed telltale signs of forchlorfenuron use: fibrous, misshapen fruit with mostly white instead of black seeds.

In March last year, Chinese authorities found that “yard-long” beans from the southern city of Sanya had been treated with the banned pesticide isocarbophos. The tainted beans turned up in several provinces, and the central city of Wuhan announced it destroyed 3.5 tons of the vegetable.

The government also has voiced alarm over the widespread overuse of food additives like dyes and sweeteners that retailers hope will make food more attractive and boost sales.

Though Chinese media remain under strict government control, domestic coverage of food safety scandals has become more aggressive in recent months, an apparent sign that the government has realized it needs help policing the troubled food industry.

The CCTV report on watermelons quoted Feng Shuangqing, a professor at the China Agricultural University, as saying the problem showed that China needs to clarify its farm chemical standards and supervision to protect consumer health.

The broadcaster described the watermelons as “land mines” and said they were exploding by the acre (hectare) in the Danyang area.

Many of farmers resorted to chopping up the fruit and feeding it to fish and pigs, the report said. By Alexa Olesen, The News & Observer

According to its Health Officer P. Kuganantham, teams of health department officials have been sensitised and trained to identify and seize mangoes that have been ripened artificially. In the last few years, some fruit vendors were found selling mangoes ripened using calcium carbide.

The last few years have seen the Chennai Corporation conducting raids on godowns and storage points of fruits every summer. “We have been adopting the practice for the last four years. We seized over 150 tonnes of mangoes in a year and over 25 tonnes of calcium carbide kept in some of the godowns,” Dr. Kuganantham said.

Food inspectors, along with sanitary inspectors, will conduct raids at different points across the 10 zones of the Corporation, including the wholesale market in Koyambedu.

Mangoes that have been ripened prematurely could be identified easily, say officials. The smell, the sheen of the skin and the taste will easily give away the use of chemicals, if any. “Premature ripening of fruits is not only in the case of mangoes, we find it in papayas and bananas, too,” says Dr. Kuganantham, adding that such fruits could have serious health implications.

While symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea are common among children who eat such fruits, adults might suffer gastrointestinal problems.

A team of officials of the Corporation’s Health Department is in the process of identifying godowns that will stock huge quantities of mangoes. “We will start picking up samples after the season peaks. The season has just begun,” he adds.

In addition to implications on health, the quality of fruits sold is an important consideration for those in the business, too. Whether it is about retaining customers or deciding on the price of the fruits, quality plays a key role, say wholesalers.

S.Srinivasan, president of Wholesale Fruits Commission Agents Association, Koyambedu, says the season of mangoes has just begun. Welcoming the Corporation’s initiative to raid, seize and destroy fruits ripened artificially, he said: “After they [the civic body] started the raids, there is more awareness and suppliers are forced to be cautious. That helps us ensure better quality,” he says.

While a reasonable stock of mangoes produced in different parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including Salem, Tenkasi and Palakkad has begun making its way into the local market, wholesalers are waiting for the stock from Andhra Pradesh. “It is taking time. I think it is to do with the climate change. What we usually receive in March comes only in May these days,” he says.

Depending on the quality, one kg of the Banganapalli variety of mangoes is priced anywhere between Rs.40-80. The Imampasand variety costs between Rs.80-100.

“The Alphonso or the variety we call Goa here comes from Ratnagiri, Pune and Mumbai. The varieties are slowly coming in and we hope to have a good season.” By Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu

Fortunately, nutrition experts know a few tricks to help you get the most nutrients out of your food.

Eggs

The process: Scrambling your eggs activates avidin, a protein that binds to biotin and renders it useless, said registered dietitian Robert Wildman. “Biotin is an important B vitamin that helps with energy support,” he said.

The fix: Try poaching or boiling.

Garlic

The process: Penn State University researchers have shown that microwave heating or roasting garlic can diminish or destroy its anti-cancer activity. If garlic is processed or dried, meanwhile, it loses its ability to form hydrogen sulfide, a substance that relaxes blood vessels and may be good for the heart, according a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

The fix: Eating garlic raw is best, but if you do need to cook your garlic, chop or crush it beforehand and allow it to “stand for at least 10 minutes, said the Penn State researchers. This allows it to create hydrogen sulfide and helps create the compound allicin, thought to be responsible for many of garlic’s health benefits.

Meat

The process: Frying, grilling or barbecuing meats at high temperatures can form carcinogens known as HCAs or heterocyclic amines. Some research has shown HCAs can cause genetic mutations in our cells that lead to the development of cancer. Scorching high-fat meat carries another risk. As the smoke rises, another class of carcinogenic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are deposited on meat, according to the American Institute of Cancer Research.

The fix: Avoid flare-ups. Also, microwave your meat for a few minutes and pour off the juices before cooking it on the grill. Baked or stewed meat has fewer carcinogens.

Tomatoes

The process: While raw tomatoes are certainly nutritious, it’s difficult for the body to absorb their lycopene, a powerful antioxidant linked to prostate health.

The fix: Cooking tomatoes or breaking up and mashing them and combining them with some type of fat or oil may enhance absorption, said registered dietitian Susan Mitchell.

Potatoes

The process: When high-carbohydrate or starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures — think crispy potato chips or French fries — it creates the chemical acrylamide, which has been linked to cancer and neurological problems in lab rats.

The fix: Boil or microwave potatoes. Frying causes the greatest acrylamide formation, followed by roasting and baking. . Pre-soak your potatoes in water. It can reduce levels of acrylamide. Don’t store potatoes in the refrigerator. It increases acrylamide during cooking.

Broccoli

The process: Overcooking broccoli by boiling or microwaving can destroy the important enzyme myrosinase, which is needed to release a key nutrient called sulforaphane.

The fix: Steaming broccoli for two to four minutes makes it easier to get the nutrients, said Jeffery. By Julie Deardorff, The Providence Journal

In the study, researchers from the universities of Bristol and St. Andrews in the UK found that the colour of a person’s skin affects how healthy and therefore attractive they appear.

Using specialist computer software, a total of 54 Caucasian participants of both sexes were asked to manipulate the skin colour of male and female Caucasian faces to make them look as healthy as possible. They chose to increase the rosiness, yellowness and brightness of the skin.

“We knew from our previous work that people who have more blood and more oxygen colour in their skins looked healthy, and so we decided to see what other colours affect health perceptions. This has given us some clues as to what other skin pigments may relate to a healthy appearance,” said Dr. Ian Stephen who is now at the University of Bristol.

Skin that is slightly flushed with blood and full of oxygen suggests a strong heart and lungs; supporting the study’s findings that rosier skin appeared healthy.

Smokers and people with diabetes or heart disease have fewer blood vessels in their skin, and so skin would appear less rosy.

The preference for more golden or ‘yellow-toned’ skin as healthier might be explained by the ‘carotenoid pigments’ that we get from the fruit and vegetables in our diet.

These plant pigments are powerful antioxidants that soak up dangerous compounds produced when the body combats disease. They are also important for our immune and reproductive systems and may help prevent cancer.

They are the same dietary pigments that brightly coloured birds and fish use to show off their healthiness and attract mates, and the researchers think that similar biological mechanisms may be at work in humans.

“In the West we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the colour of your skin but our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better,” Stephen said.

Melanin, the pigment that causes the tan colon when skin is exposed to the sun makes the skin darker and more yellow, but participants in the study chose to make skin lighter and more yellow to make it look healthier.

Professor David Perrett, head of the Perception Lab at the University of St. Andrews, where the research took place,” said: “What we eat and not just how much we eat appears to be important for a healthy appearance. The only natural way in which we can make our skin lighter and more yellow is to eat a more healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables.”  The Times of India

Dietician Namrata Mirchandani says that the thing to remember with fruits is their colour. Each colour is rich in a particular mineral or vitamin. Red fruits like apples, cherries and pomegranates are full of nutrients such as lycopene, vitamins A and C and folate. Orange and yellow fruits such as papayas, oranges and mangoes contain beta-carotene, flavonoids, lycopene, potassium, and vitamin C. Green fruits like green apples, grapes, avocados have an abundance of chlorophyll, fibre, calcium, folate, vitamin C and beta-carotene.

“For those who do not particularly enjoy biting into a fruit, you can have fruit juices, fruit smoothies or an extra helping of brightly-coloured vegetables. In the latter case you must be sure of eating enough vegetables to make up for the fruits. Also good are dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots and berries,” she says.

Apple Ginger Preserve

This is not only a delicious preserve, but full of the goodness of apples as well as the antioxidant properties of ginger. This is also ideal for those who do not want to eat raw fruits.

Ingredients

300 gm ginger roots, washed and peeled

1 kg red apples, peeled

½ litre water

1 kg sugar

1 tsp ginger powder

Method

Roughly chop the ginger

roots and apples and blitz them in a food processor till smooth.

In a big saucepan, add the ginger and apple and the water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then cook on low heat for about an hour. Add the sugar and cook for 20 minutes more, stirring often.

Add the ginger powder, stir and remove. Set aside to cool. Pour the preserve in clean jam jars, tighten the lids and dip in boiling water for 10 minutes.

The preserve can be kept in the refrigerator for 6 weeks.

Desi Fruit Salad

We call this the desi fruit salad because all the fruits mentioned below are readily available in India. Best of all, since a variety of fruits are used, the salad is an ideal source of most of the vitamins you will need.

Ingredients

1 cup pineapple, diced

1 cup water melon balls or cubed

1 cup sliced strawberries

1 cup white grapes

1 pear, peeled and sliced

2 bananas, peeled and sliced

2 oranges, peeled and sliced

Lemon juice

Aamchoor powder

For the fruit dressing

½ cup orange juice

3 tbsp salad oil

2 tsp sugar

Pinch of salt ½ sp. salt

Method

Add all ingredients for the dressing in an air-tight container and shake vigorously till blended. Chill it.

In a large non-metallic bowl, add all the fruit pieces and sprinkle liberally with lemon juice. Cover with cling film and chill. Before serving, pour the fruit dressing, sprinkle a bit of aamchoor powder, toss gently and serve. Deccan Chronicle

Prices are expected to remain high this year, prompting concern that the world may be approaching another crisis, although economists cautioned that many factors, like adequate stockpiles of key grains, could prevent a serious problem.

The United Nations data measures commodity prices on the world export market. Those are generally far removed from supermarket prices in wealthy countries like the United States. In this country, food price inflation has been relatively tame, and prices are forecast to rise only 2 percent to 3 percent this year.

But the situation is often different in poor countries that rely more heavily on imports. The food price index of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization rose 32 percent from June to December, according to the report published Wednesday. In December, the index was slightly higher than it was in June 2008, its previous peak. The index is not adjusted for inflation, however, making an exact comparison over time difficult.

The global index was pushed up last year by rising prices for cooking oils, grains, sugar and meat, all of which could continue to remain high or rise.

“We are at a very high level,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist for the organization, which is based in Rome. “These levels in the previous episode led to problems and riots across the world.”

Abbassian said that bad weather affecting commodity crops in many exporting countries might help keep prices high over the next several months. By William Neuman, The New York Times

Berries

Berries are rich in antioxidants, i.e flavanoids. “These help the brain to recall things better,” says Mumbai-based nutritionist Naini Setalvad. Antioxidants improves the supply of oxygen to the brain, helping it remember better.

Healthy fats

Olive oil is a good source of monounsaturated fat. “This improves the supply of blood to the brain, improving the brain’s power to retain,” says Mumbai-based nutritionist Maithili Pashtekar. Omega 3 fats are brain food too as they enhance its learning ability and improve its problem-solving skills. Nuts like walnuts, almonds and pistachios are a good source of healthy fats too.

Chocolates

“Chocolates contain serotonin, that helps reduce stress,” says Maithili. Stress is a factor that affects your ability to remember. A stress-free you will be able to remember things better. It is a good source of theobromine a natural stimulant that helps brain cells to perform better. “A piece or two of dark chocolate a day is good for your heart too,” says Naini.

Grains and millets

Vitamin B is extremely essential for the brains cognitive functioning. “Grains like wheat and rice and millets like jowar and bajra are a good source of vitamin B,” says Naini. Another nutrient that contributes towards the brain’s cognitive functioning is Vitamin C. “So include a good amount of citrus fruits, amlas and guavas to your diet,” says Maithili.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is rich in choline. “Choline rich foods help your brain in its-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-but-cant-remember kind of situations,” says Naini. Other rich sources of choline are cabbage, tofu and lentils or your dals.

Turmeric

“This powerful spice can help prevent alzheimers,” says Maithili. It removes the build up of amyloyd plaque and delays progression of the disease. They contain antioxidants that protect our cells from age-related damage. Sumitra Nair | Team iDiva, Mumbai Mirror

Fruit and vegetables do little or nothing to protect the body against breast, prostate, bowel, lung and other tumors, a large-scale study published by Britain’s biggest cancer charity has concluded.

Instead, the cancer-conscious would be better off keeping slim, stopping smoking and cutting back on alcohol, the Oxford University researcher behind the findings said.

Professor Tim Key came up with the controversial conclusion after putting together the results of more than a dozen previous studies on the subject, involving more than 100,000 people from around the world.

For breast and prostate cancer – two of Britain’s biggest killers – he found ‘little or no association’ between eating fruit and veg and the risk of disease.

For lung cancer, the link is ‘weak and inconsistent’ and may simply be due to the figures being clouded by the toxic effects of smoking, according to the study published by Cancer Research UK in the British Journal of Cancer.

Mouth and throat cancers and stomach and bowel cancers are also unlikely to be kept at bay, said the professor.

The idea that eating our greens protects against cancer became popular in the mid-1970s and was backed up by various research over the following two decades.

But Professor Key says the results were likely to have been skewed by the inclusion of extra-healthy people among those studied and that later analyses, in which healthy people were tracked for years to see if they developed disease, provide a much more accurate picture.

He doesn’t, however, rule out that evidence of the ability of fruit and vegetables to ward off cancer will emerge in the future.

On the other hand the evidence for smoking, obesity and alcohol causing cancer is strong.

The professor concluded: ‘At least in relatively healthy, well-nourished Westernised populations, a general increase in total fruit and vegetable intake will not have a large impact on cancer rates.

‘For bodies giving advice, it might be helpful to remind people that the things that are absolutely definite are smoking, alcohol and obesity. These are the things to act on for a definite benefit.’

He added that while fruit and vegetables have other health benefits, for those who already have a healthy diet, ‘the evidence does not support eating a lot of fruit and vegetables to reduce the risk of cancer’.

Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Too few people know about the significant cancer risks associated with obesity and drinking too much alcohol.

‘While stopping smoking remains the best way to cut your chances of developing cancer, the importance of keeping a healthy weight and cutting down on alcohol shouldn’t be overlooked.’

The Department of Health recommends eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for all-round health.

Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘There is still good evidence that this helps to lower heart disease risk.’ By Fiona Macrae, The Daily Mail