Released on EurekAlert! On July 23, 2014
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/acs-rao072314.php

The popular culinary herbs oregano and rosemary are packed with healthful compounds, and now lab tests show they could work in much the same way as prescription anti-diabetic medication, scientists report. In their new study published in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they found that how the herbs are grown makes a difference, and they also identified which compounds contribute the most to this promising trait.

Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia and colleagues point out that in 2012, type-2 diabetes affected more than 8 percent of Americans and cost the country $175 billion. Some people can manage the disease with exercise and changes to their diet, and others take medication. But not everyone can stick to a new lifestyle or afford the prescription drugs necessary to keep their blood-sugar level in check. Recent research has shown that herbs could provide a natural way to help lower glucose in blood. So Gonzalez de Mejia’s team decided to take a closer look.

They tested four different herbs, either greenhouse-grown or dried commercial versions, for their ability to interfere with a diabetes-related enzyme, which is also a target of a prescription drug for the disease.

They found that greenhouse herbs contained more polyphenols and flavonoids compared to the equivalent commercial herbs. But this didn’t affect the concentration required to inhibit the enzyme. Commercial extracts of Greek oregano, Mexican oregano and rosemary were better inhibitors of the enzyme, required to reduce risk of type-2 diabetes, than greenhouse-grown herbs. The researchers say more studies are needed to understand the role of these compounds in reducing the risk of type-2 diabetes in humans.

# # #

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, the ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Original Article released:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/acs-rao072314.php

Link Cited on: LINK de DIET
http://www.nutritio.net/linkdediet/news/FMPro?-db=NEWS.fp5&-Format=detail.htm&kibanID=45437&-lay=lay&-Find

Posted on The Japan Times by The Yomiuri Shimbun on August 12, 2014
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001468288
Passengers eat lunch on Kitakinki Tango Railway’s Tango Kuromatsu train.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Yomiuri Shimbun“Gourmet sightseeing trains” that run on local lines across the nation are a hot trend, allowing passengers to go sightseeing while dining on authentic dishes using locally produced ingredients.

As many of them operate only on weekends or limited schedules, seats are sometimes very difficult to reserve. The concept of dining leisurely while enjoying the scenery seen from a train window, which has broad appeal, has contributed to a recovery in the declining number of riders on local trains.

Shikoku Railway Co. began operating the Iyonada Monogatari sightseeing train on July 26. On weekends and national holidays, the train travels mainly around the coastal area of Ehime Prefecture. The two-car train with a capacity of 50 passengers was remodeled at a cost of about ¥150 million.

Iyonada Monogatari train at JR Matsuyama Station 

On its inaugural day, family passengers boarded the train at Matsuyama Station.

“This line hasn’t been profitable, so I hope many people will ride the train and enjoy the splendid landscape along the railway track,” said JR Shikoku President Masafumi Izumi at the inauguration ceremony held at the station in the morning.

Dishes served on the train include a salad using locally grown lettuce and tomatoes, breaded fried uchiko pork featuring a local pork brand and red sea bream, which came from the nearby Seto Inland Sea, steamed in wine.

“I’m looking forward to trying the dishes made with local ingredients,” said Masako Yoneda, 50, a piano teacher of Yufu, Oita Prefecture. “I like the train’s old-fashioned decor, which uses plenty of wood.”

In May, Kitakinki Tango Railway Co. began operating the Tango Kuromatsu train, another gourmet sightseeing train that plies the 54-kilometer distance between Ama no Hashidate Station in Kyoto Prefecture and Toyooka Station in Hyogo Prefecture.

Passengers can dine on a salad of locally grown vegetables and roasted Kyoto beef, among other specialties. The ingredients are partially prepared at gourmet inns in the region and finished in the train’s on-board kitchen.

Yukiko Saiga, 73, a homemaker of Yabu, Hyogo Prefecture, took the train with three of her family members.

“I could tell that a lot of time and energy went into all the dishes. It’s like an upscale restaurant,” she said. “The scenery you see out a train window is usually nothing special, but it seems like a different world to me now.”

The Kuromatsu train comes in three types—trains that specialize in lunches, sweets or locally brewed sake, which are offered mainly on weekends. Although the cost runs from ¥4,000 to ¥10,000 per passenger, including train fare, it is so popular that getting a reservation can be difficult.

Sightseeing trains for enjoying local delicacies are also diverse in their offerings.

Shinano Railway, which operates in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, started operations of their Rokumon train in July, serving local specialty gourmet ham and wines made at wineries along the railway line.

Ohmi Railway Corp., which operates in eastern Shiga Prefecture, is running the Ohmi Biaden—Hoshizora Nama Biru Go (Ohmi beer train—starry sky draft beer) train until Aug. 30. Passengers are served frozen beer.

The Tsudoi train operated by Kintetsu Corp. is equipped with seats facing windows. Ise ebi lobster soup and other local dishes are served at the counter on board.

East Japan Railway Co.’s Tohoku Emotion train operates between Hachinohe Station in Aomori Prefecture and Kuji Station in Iwate Prefecture and provides a dessert buffet and a lunch menu featuring seafood caught off the Sanriku region.

Isumi Railway’s Restaurant Kiha train operating in Chiba Prefecture serves Italian dishes, curry and rice and sashimi.

Showa Retoro Biru de Densha (Showa retro beer and train), operated by Keihan Electric Railway Co., travels in Shiga Prefecture and serves a bottomless mug of beer.

A Ressha de Iko (Take the A train), operated by Kyushu Railway Co., runs in Kumamoto Prefecture. Passengers are served highballs using locally grown dekopon citrus fruit to the sounds of jazz music.

According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, of 91 companies operating local trains, including semiprivate companies, 69 were in the red in fiscal 2012. The poor results were attributed to a decrease of about 20 percent in ridership caused by a population decline outside of metropolitan areas compared to that of 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, Kitakinki Tango Railway attracted about 17,000 more passengers in fiscal 2013 by launching two types of sightseeing trains that have elaborately designed interiors.

“The total number of passengers last fiscal year fell slightly from the previous year,” said company president Kiyokazu Ueda. “So I hope it will increase this fiscal year with the popularity of gourmet sightseeing trains.”

Few trains operate on local railway lines, making it possible to run trains at slower speeds so passengers can enjoy leisurely dining. Many such routes are located in areas rich with nature, a boon for attracting tourists.

“Local railway lines have been shifting from a means of transportation to a sightseeing attraction,” said Yoko Hayano, a research fellow of Japan Tourism Marketing Co. “Gourmet sightseeing trains are a good way to get people interested in areas along the lines.”

Original Article:  The Japan Times by Yomiuri Shimbun
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001468288
The Yomiuri Shimbun

平和は武力では維持できない。

理解によってのみ平和は達成される。

アルベルト・アインシュタイン

Posted on SFGate by Joanne Marie, Demand Media
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-miso-paste-digestion-3318.html

Miso paste is a probiotic food that can help treat intestinal disorder

Miso paste is an Asian seasoning made by fermenting a mixture of soybeans, barley, brown rice and several other grains with a fungus, Aspergillus oryzae. The result of this fermentation is a smooth-textured paste with a strong, salty flavor. Often used in Asian cooking, miso is a healthy, probiotic food that helps support digestion by adding beneficial microorganisms to your digestive tract.

Intestinal Flora

Your large intestine contains about 100 trillion beneficial microorganisms from more than 500 different species. These microorganisms, called your normal flora, help you digest your food and process indigestible fiber, which you then eliminate in stool. They also protect you from pathogenic bacteria you ingest with food by maintaining a proper balance of bacterial colonies in your intestine. Mostly anaerobic bacteria that don’t require oxygen to live, your normal flora also produce vitamin K, an important clotting factor. If you contract a digestive illness or take antibiotics, some of these beneficial bacteria may die, potentially leading to diarrhea or other intestinal problems.

Probiotic Miso

Miso paste is a probiotic food that contains millions of microorganisms similar or identical to those beneficial bacteria that live in your large intestine. These microorganisms grow during the fermentation that produces miso, a process that typically takes anywhere from a few days to a year or more. The length of the fermentation process determines the flavor strength of the miso and also contributes to the number of probiotic organisms in the final paste. Nutritionally, miso paste provides mostly carbohydrate with some protein. It is also rich in several of the B-complex vitamins and contains several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.

Probiotic Benefits

Probiotic foods such as miso paste have a number of health benefits. In addition to contributing new bacteria to your existing intestinal colonies, miso can also help you overcome intestinal illness, including diarrhea. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, consuming probiotic foods can shorten the duration of infectious diarrhea, especially in infants and children. The Harvard website also summarizes strong evidence indicating that proobiotic foods can reduce the incidence of diarrhea caused by antibiotics by as much as 60 percent. In addition, the Mayo Clinic says that probiotic foods may also help treat irritable bowel syndrome and certain intestinal infections.

Uses

Miso paste is typically added to Japanese soup and other Asian dishes. To use miso in soup, dissolve a tablespoon of the paste in tepid water and add this to a pot of heated water containing tofu, seaweed or other ingredients of your preference. You might also spread a small amount of miso paste on crackers for a snack, keeping in mind that the paste is quite salty. Miso is also a flavorful condiment when spread on cooked corn on the cob in place of salt and butter, or as a spread on toast at breakfast. To preserve the living microorganisms in miso paste, avoid subjecting it to high heat. Instead, add the paste to dishes that have already been cooked or heated to serving temperature.

Original Article:  SFGate
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-miso-paste-digestion-3318.html3

Released on EurekAlert! On July 30, 2014
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/tnam-smh072914.php

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Wednesday, July 30, 2014)—A diet rich in soy may help feminine hearts, but timing matters, finds a new study published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society. 

Lifelong soy consumption, similar to the diet of women in Asia, produces the least atherosclerosis. Switching to a Western diet after menopause, similar to Asian migrants to North America, leads to just as much atherosclerosis as a lifelong Western diet, and switching to soy from a Western diet after menopause helps only if there isn’t much atherosclerosis already.

Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, reached those conclusions based on their feeding study of cynomolgus monkeys before and after surgical menopause. They fed premenopausal monkeys a diet with protein derived mainly from animal sources or a diet with protein from high-isoflavone soybeans. After having their ovaries removed, mimicking human menopause, one group of monkeys continued to eat a soy diet, another switched from animal protein to soy, a third group stuck with animal protein, and a fourth switched from animal protein to soy.

After 34 months, cholesterol levels were good in the monkeys who ate soy before and after menopause. And for those that switched to a soy protein diet after menopause, similar to some North American women concerned about their heart health, cholesterol levels did improve significantly (with lower total, LDL, and VLDL and higher HDL). But when it came to how much plaque progressed in the arteries, there weren’t any statistically significant differences, despite trends favoring a lifelong soy diet and the switch to soy after menopause.

As far as the total amount of atherosclerosis was concerned, monkeys eating a lifelong soy diet showed a much lower proportion of complicated plaque in the arteries than the other monkeys.

There was a big advantage to a postmenopausal switch to soy for some of the monkeys, however. For those that had small plaques in the arteries at the time of menopause, the switch to soy after menopause markedly reduced the progression of plaque in the arteries.

These findings add to the similar ones from the Women’s Isoflavone Soy Health (WISH) clinical trial on atherosclerosis in women after menopause, but this animal study was able to model what the effects of a soy diet or soy supplements may be, based on women’s diets and heart health before menopause or very early after menopause, when artery plaques may still be small.

“This study underscores how important it is for women to get into the best cardiovascular shape they can before menopause. The healthy habits they start then will carry them through the years to come,” says NAMS Executive Director Margery Gass, MD.

###

The article “Beneficial effects of soy supplementation on postmenopausal atherosclerosis are dependent on pretreatment stage of plaque progression,” will be published in the March 2015 print edition of Menopause.

Founded in 1989, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) is North America’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and quality of life of all women during midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause and healthy aging. Its multidisciplinary membership of 2,000 leaders in the field—including clinical and basic science experts from medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, nutrition, anthropology, epidemiology, pharmacy, and education—makes NAMS uniquely qualified to serve as the definitive resource for health professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause and healthy aging. To learn more about NAMS, visit http://www.menopause.org.

Original Article released:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/tnam-smh072914.php

Link Cited on: LINK de DIET
http://www.nutritio.net/linkdediet/news/FMPro?-db=NEWS.fp5&-Format=detail.htm&kibanID=45455&-lay=lay&-Find

Posted on LIVESTRONG.COM on Feb 2, 2014 by Jill Corleone 
http://www.livestrong.com/article/371351-okra-nutrition-information/

Bowl full of okra Photo Credit bahadir-yeniceri/iStock/Getty Images

Okra is a classic southern vegetable, often served stewed with tomatoes, simmered in a gumbo or simply fried. If you don’t like okra, it’s probably because you haven’t had it cooked correctly. Okra’s slime, or what botanists call mucilage, can turn any vegetable lover into an okra hater. But if you’ve given up on this vegetable, you may want to give it another try. It’s low in calories and a good source of fiber, potassium, vitamin C, folate and magnesium.

Low-Energy-Dense Food

Energy density refers to the number of calories a food contains by weight. Foods with a low energy density have fewer calories per gram of weight, which means you get to eat a larger portion and consume fewer calories. A 1/2-cup serving, which is 80 grams, of boiled and drained okra has 25 calories, or 0.3 calories per gram. If you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, eating more low-energy-dense foods like okra can help.

Carbs and Fiber

Most of the calories in okra come from carbs, with 6 grams per 1/2-cup serving. Carbohydrates are an essential nutrient your body needs to function properly. It is also the body’s preferred source of energy. Some of the carbs in the okra come from its fiber content. A 1/2-cup serving of cooked okra contains 2 grams of fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate your body cannot digest, and eating more fiber-rich foods can help lower blood cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease.

Some Protein, No Fat

Some of the calories in okra come from its protein and fat content, although the amount of fat in a serving of okra is negligible. A 1/2-cup serving contains 1.5 grams of protein and 0.1 grams of total fat. Like carbohydrates, protein and fats are also essential nutrients you need for good health. Protein in foods like okra helps with tissue repair and supports immune health. Like carbohydrates, fat in food also provides energy and is necessary for absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Rich in Vitamins and Minerals

Okra is a nutrient-rich vegetable that can help you meet your vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and magnesium needs. As an antioxidant, vitamin C protects your cells from free radical damage, which may reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer. Folic acid is a B vitamin that is especially important for women of child-bearing age because it helps prevent birth defects. Potassium in foods like okra is used to build muscle and break down carbs into energy. You need magnesium for protein synthesis and to assist with the contraction and relaxation of your muscles.

Original Article: LIVESTRONG.COM
http://www.livestrong.com/article/371351-okra-nutrition-information/