Image courtesy of bfeedme.com Macadamia nuts included in a heart healthy diet reduced low-density cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and should be included among nuts with qualified health claims, according to researchers.

"We looked at macadamia nuts because they are not currently included in the health claim for tree nuts, while other tree nuts are currently recommended as part of a heart healthy diet," says Dr. Amy E. Griel, a recent Penn State Ph.D. recipient in nutrition and now senior nutrition scientist at The Hershey Company. "Macadamia nuts have higher levels of monosaturated fats, like those found in olive oil compared with other tree nuts".

Along with Brazil nuts and cashews, macadamia nuts are not included in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's list of nuts with qualified health claims because the cut-off point is 4 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams of nuts. Macadamia nuts have 6 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams, cashew nuts have 4.6 grams and Brazil nuts have 7.6 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams of nuts.

"Epidemiological studies showed that people who are frequent nut consumers have decreased risk of heart disease," says Penny Kris-Etherton, co-author and distinguished professor of nutritional sciences.

The researchers used a controlled feeding study to compare a heart-healthy diet with 1.5 ounces a small handful of macadamia nuts to a standard American diet. The participants had slightly elevated cholesterol levels, normal blood pressure and were not taking lipid-lowering drugs. Researchers randomly assigned participants to either the macadamia nut diet or the standard American diet and provided all meals for the participants for five weeks. The participants then switched diets and continued eating only food provided by the researchers for another five weeks.

The Healthy Heart diet with macadamia nuts did reduce total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared with the standard American diet. The researchers reported in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, that the macadamia nuts reduced total cholesterol by 9.4 percent and low-density lipoprotein by 8.9 percent.

Individual calorie levels were used for each participant so that they did not gain or lose weight during the study. Both diets were matched for total fat, containing 33 percent calories from total fat. The Heart Healthy diet with macadamia nuts had 7 percent saturated fat, 18 percent monosaturated fat and 5 percent polyunsaturated fat. The standard American diet had 13 percent saturated fat, 11 percent monosaturated fat and 5 percent saturated fat.

"We found that the reduction in LDL or bad cholesterol we observed was greater than would be predicted by just the healthy fats in the nuts alone," says Griel. "This indicates that there is something else in the nuts that helps lower cholesterol".

The macadamia nut diet included macadamia nuts as a snack, mixed into meals, as a salad topping and in cookies and muffins. The total fat was the same in both diets. Macadamia nuts were substituted for other sources of fat and protein in the diet. Switching skim milk for 2 percent milk and adding some macadamia nuts kept fat levels even.

"I think the bottom line is that Macadamia nuts probably should be included in the list of nuts to have a qualified health claim," says Kris-Etherton.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

I've mentioned before that I am involved with a great charity called 'Books In Homes'. It's a program where children at a disadvantaged school recieve 9 books of their choice each year. It all stems from the findings that the majority of those in prison come from disadvantaged areas, and have poor reading and writing skills. Books In Homes is all about getting thee kids interested in education, so they can make a better future for themselves.

Part of the program is the book giving ceremony, where the corporate sponsor, and a role model go out to the school and present the kids with their new books.

Well last week I was invited to be the role model at Doonside Public School. To be asked to do this was humbling to say the least, given that last year they had Michael O'Loughlan (Sydney Swans), and the Govenor General!

The coorporate sponsors for Doonside Public School are MainFreight, and they had 2 representitives from their company in attendance. It must be said that Mainfreight not only provide books at Doonside, but also at many other schools across Australia and New Zealand.

The assembly was formed and there I was standing in front of all those gazing eyes. The excitement in these kids were unbelieveable! I told them my story, about my achievements and how important education has been in my life. I explained how cool physics and biomechanics can be (Did I just say that!), and gave examples of how these subjects relate to the sports they enjoy playing. I then asked around the room, to see what they dreamt of being when they are older: teachers, archiologists, marine biologists, and captaining the Australian Rugby Team, were just a few. I remember being that old, and attending a school very similar. I really didn't want to sit back down!

The assembly finished and I was given a series of 'hi fives' as I left the assembly. We went back for some morning tea with the teachers in the staff room and I hadn't had a sip of my tea, when I was challenged to a game of handball by a group of students. I was warned that they were pretty good (and that the rules change very regularly :), but I remember being pretty good back in the day so took my suit jacket off and headed down to the 'arena'. There were 6 squares, with a line up of about 15 reserves, and apparently this is what it is like at every break. Well I held my own, but was certainly given a lesson by a couple of the older boys (Lol, 11 years old!).

The kids really seemed to love the interaction and I always had at least on standing next to me telling me their story, about where they're from, what they'd like to do in the future, or why they chose the books they did. We even had one of the more troubled students following the principal around asking a series of jokes from the joke book he had just recieved (yes, they were sick jokes, and yes I laughed at every one of them!)

I am being totally honest when I say it one of the best things I've done in years. I walked into that school thinking that I had few stressful situations to deal with during that week, but left with a whole new perspective. I couldn't get the smile off my face, and there was no event in my life at the moment that was even the slightest challenge. How could I think otherwise after seeing these kids, and the joy they had at just recieving these books?

Now I know these kids will go back to their normal lives, some probably have minimal love and supervision, or not even the essential 3 meals a day. But now they have these books, and I have no doubt that there will be some in that group that will one day look back on the Books In Homes program, and wonder where their life might've ended up without it!

I can't wait to go back!

Your friend can eat whatever she wants and still fit into her prom dress, but you gain five pounds if you just look at that chocolate cake. Before you sign up for Weight Watchers and that gym membership, though, you may want to look at some recent research from Tel Aviv University and save yourself a few hundred dollars.

A womans waistline may have less to do with rigorous exercise and abstaining from sweets than it does with the genes of her parents, as per a new study by Prof. Gregory Livshits from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and his colleagues from Kings College in London. Dr. Livshits and colleagues have found a scientific link between the lean body mass of a woman and her genes. Theyve determined that thinness like your smile or the color of your eyes is an inheritable trait.


Bad News First, Then the Good
Prof. Livshits, whose findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2007), says, The bad news is that a number of of our physical features, including our weight, are dependent on our genes. The good news is that women still have an opportunity to go against their genetic constitution and do something about it.

Until now, researchers were not sure to what extent environmental influences and genetics played a role in a womans body size. When controlling for the variance of age, the differences in womens body sizes can be predicted in the genes more than 50 percent of the time, the scientists found.

Prof. Livshits conducted his study on more than 3,000 middle-aged women in the United Kingdom who belonged to either an identical or fraternal twin pair. He measured their total lean mass, one of the three major components of body weight, and compared it to markers in their genes.


A Slim Chance?
Additional collaborative research between the two teams, which builds on the past study, is would be reported in the next few months. It may help pave the way for a skinny gene test, which one day may help women trying to lose weight understand what kind of battle they can expect.

Those without the lean genes, however, will always find it harder to stay slim, predicts Prof. Livshits. But before your diet falls by the wayside, consider Prof. Livshits contention that genetics can be overcome.


Curb Your Enthusiasm
Its important to not have high expectations, he warns. Women need to know that what they can do about their body weight particularly when they age is relatively little, and they will do it only with much difficulty.

Very few studies to date have been able to associate a bodys lean mass with genetics. The topic is a specialty at the Tel Aviv University lab, one of the top labs in the world to study the genetics of aging of body composition. This area includes the study of bone, fat and lean mass as it develops in a person over time.

Research on body composition components their growth, degradation and genes is part of Prof. Livshits ongoing work on aging and health. Issues such as weight gain are complex, he says, particularly when age is factored in.

So dont get too jealous of your friends dress size. It may be mostly out of your hands and in your DNA.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source