A study by Norwegian scientists finds that a women’s weight before pregnancy, coupled with the amount of weight gain during pregnancy, are significant indicators of a baby’s birth weight and, possibly, adult weight. The researchers assessed data on pre-pregnancy and pregnancy weight for more than 58,000 women over seven years. It was found that the birth weight of the newborn child increased with increasing maternal pre-pregnant body mass index (BMI); offspring birth weight also increased with increasing weight gain of the mother during pregnancy. Every one kilogram increase in pre-pregnancy BMI increased birth weight with 22.4 g. A subsequent increase in weight gain during pregnancy of 10 kg increased birth weight with 224 g.

A British study has found that restricting carbohydrate intake two days a week may be a better way to prevent breast cancer and other diseases than simply restricting calories. Researchers compared three diets over four months to determine the effect on weight loss and on blood markers of breast cancer among 115 women with a family history of breast cancer. Patients were randomly assigned to a calorie-restricted, low-carb diet for two days a week; an low-carb, high-protein, high-healthy fat diet for two days a week; or a standard calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet for seven days a week. The intermittent low-carb diet that allowed unlimited protein and fats was superior to the calorie-restricted diet for reducing weight and reducing insulin levels, a marker for breast cancer.

A study by British researchers has found that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day leads to longer sleep time, less daytime napping and increased overall sleep efficiency. The researchers attributed the sleep benefits to the melatonin content of the pure Montmorency juice concentrate diluted in a half pint of water. The researchers, whose experiment included 20 adults, found that when participants had two daily glasses of tart cherry juice they slept 39 minutes longer, on average, and had up to a six percent increase in overall sleep efficiency (i.e., significantly less non-sleep time in bed), compared to when they drank a non-cherry, fruit cocktail.

Obese patients with type 2 diabetes who consumed a low-calorie diet were able to eliminate insulin dependence, according to an unpublished Dutch clinical study. They also showed signs of improved heart function. The researchers used cardiac MRI to analyze cardiac function and pericardial fat in 15 patients after four months of a 500-calories-a-day diet. BMI dropped from 35.3 to 27.5 over four months. Pericardial fat decreased and diastolic heart function improved. After an additional 14 months of follow-up on a regular diet, BMI increased to 31.7, but pericardial fat only increased slightly. "Despite regain of weight, these beneficial cardiovascular effects were persistent over the long term," the researchers concluded.

Postmenopausal women on a diet who snacked between breakfast and lunch lost significantly less weight than women who avoided snacks, a randomized U.S. clinical study has found. Researchers found in the year-long study that mid-morning snackers lost an average of seven  percent of their total body weight. But those who ate a healthy breakfast and did not snack before lunch lost more than 11 percent of their body weight. The researchers said snacks can be a source of additional fruits, vegetables, and fiber-rich foods, but “snacking patterns might also reflect unhealthy eating habits and impede weight-loss progress.” They suggested that future studies should focus on the impact of such factors as timing, frequency, and quality of snacks on weight loss.

An increase in physical activity is associated with improvement in the quality of diet, a U.S. study has found. The researchers said that an understanding of the interaction between exercise and a healthy diet can improve both preventative and therapeutic measures against obesity. Data from studies suggest that tendencies toward a healthy diet and the right amount of exercise often go hand in  hand: increasing physical exercise actually tends to improve diet quality. The researchers said that “when exercise is added to a weight-loss diet, treatment of obesity is more successful and the diet is adhered to in the long run."

Consumers interested in losing weight are responding to marketing promises, driving healthy weight management product sales, according to a Euromonitor report. Weight loss companies have successfully upgraded their meal replacement lines, introducing new flavors for current products, and launching new powders, soups and bars. All have enjoyed success at the retail level. Palatability and texture have improved markedly, thanks to the application of new ingredient technologies. Meal replacement slimming and weight loss supplements posted the highest sales in the U.S., mainly because of strong promotional efforts from direct sellers Amway and Herbalife. “A combination of high overweight/obesity rates, affluence and the desire for a perfect body helped North America dominate retail value sales of weight management products in 2010,” Euromonitor said.

A survey conducted by a group representing steelmakers and some food processors found that only 46 percent of Americans know that canned foods count toward U.S. government recommended dietary guidelines; 40 percent believe canned foods are less nutritious than frozen foods; and sixty percent believes canned foods are not as nutritious as fresh. But according to the Canned Food Alliance, food packaged in steel cans “can be just as nutritious (and sometimes more nutritious) than fresh and frozen varieties.” CFA Executive Director Rich Tavoletti said canned foods provide affordable, accessible and convenient nutrition.

Researchers in Spain who analyzed the diets of 935 men and women at risk of cardiovascular disease found that red meat consumption was associated with greater weight gain and a higher obesity rate, while fish consumption was linked to lower glucose concentrations and less risk of diabetes. Intake of large amounts of red meat was linked to higher cardiovascular risk, higher blood pressure, diabetes and a moderate decrease in life expectancy, mainly due from cancer or heart disease. Eating both white and oily fish, however, not only had health benefits for the heart, consumption of fish, it was associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute studying whether a cranberry extract might offer more health benefits than the juice have found that the juice is better at preventing biofilm formation, a precursor of urinary tract infections (UTI). The study tested the group of flavonoids in cranberries known as proanthocyanidins or PACs, the ingredient scientists have assumed gives the juice its infection-fighting properties and therefore could be candidate for creation of an extract deliverable in pill form. The researchers tested the extract and the juice on E. coli bacteria, the primary cause of UTI, finding that the PACs were no “silver bullet,” showing only limited ability to reduce biofilm formation, and only after extended exposure to the E. coli.

Adolescents, especially girls, who read magazines and watch TV shows that focus on body image are more likely to have a poor self-image, according to a Spanish study of 1,165 high school students. The researchers said the relationship between exposure to these media and body dissatisfaction is not direct, but is real. Psychological variables – eating disorders, self-esteem, internalization of a “thin-body ideal” – can moderate the relationship. Researchers found that exposure to media content such as diet, beauty, health or music videos had a bigger negative impact on girls than on boys. The girls in the study had a lower BMI than the boys, but displayed greater body dissatisfaction: 16.5 percent in women as opposed to 5.4 percent in men.

Obese people who restrict their diet and lose weight are likely to regain that weight because of hormonal changes, not because of a return to a poor diet. Fifty overweight or obese adults with a BMI of between 27 and 40 participated in a 10-week low-calorie weight loss program. Researchers measured appetite-regulating hormones at the beginning of the study, at the end, and a year later. Participants lost an average of 13 kgs, but the hormone levels changed in a way associated with an increase in hunger. After a year, participants had regained an average of five kgs. “The relapse has a strong physiological basis and is not simply the result of the voluntary resumption of old habits," researchers concluded.

Unhealthy dietary patterns in children as young as a year old are the root cause of America’s childhood obesity problem, Nestlé Nutrition research has found. One-third of the calories consumed by toddlers from the age of 12 months and up come from between-meal snacking on nutrient-poor foods. Bad eating habits start early in life, according to the study, which noted that those habits mirror those of older children and adults. The solution starts with giving parents and guardians better nutrition guidance, establishing healthy eating habits early, and making simple dietary changes. For example, parents could make snack times “mini-meal” times when kids could eat fruits, vegetables, low fat yogurt, and whole grain foods instead of junk.

U.S. researchers told a nutrition conference that potatoes are one of the best nutritional values in the produce department, providing significantly better nutritional value per dollar than most other raw vegetables. Per serving, white potatoes were the largest and most affordable source of potassium of any vegetable or fruit, the researchers said. For the study, which was funded by the United States Potato Board, the researchers merged nutrient composition data from the USDA Food and Nutrition Database with the USDA national food prices database. They also obtained frequency of consumption data and used the Affordable Nutrition Index to assess nutritional value per dollar for potatoes and for other vegetables. They found that potatoes were the lowest cost source of dietary potassium, in fact half that of most other vegetables.

British researchers have discovered one of the key reasons why green vegetables are so beneficial: they are the source of a chemical signal important to a fully functioning immune system. The signal ensures that immune cells in the gut and the skin known as intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) function properly. The researchers fed otherwise healthy mice a vegetable-poor diet for two to three weeks and found that 70 to 80 percent of the protective cells disappeared. The numbers of IELs serving as a first line of defense and in wound repair depend on levels of a cell-surface protein that is regulated by dietary ingredients found primarily in cruciferous vegetables.

Hypertension researchers at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center conducted a review of so-called “natural” products marketed as treatments for high blood pressure, finding that a couple of dietary supplements and herbal remedies seem to show promise, at least on an individual basis. For example, the supplement coenzyme Q10, an antioxidant enzyme involved in energy production, significantly reduced blood pressure. Potassium also helps lower blood pressure, whether it comes from the foods or from a supplement. Promising herbal remedies included mistletoe extract, which can be toxic at high doses, and Hawthorn extract. Some herbal remedies on the other hand – St. John's wort, ephedra/ma huang, yohimbine and licorice – seem to increase blood pressure.

British and Colombian researchers who looked at seven studies involving 100,000 people have found that consuming high levels of chocolate was associated with a 37 percent reduction in the risk of heart disease. The studies did not differentiate between dark or milk chocolate, and included consumption of chocolate bars, drinks, biscuits and desserts. But the researchers offered several caveats to their findings. More studies are needed to find out whether chocolate actually caused the reduction in heart disease risk or if some other unmeasured factor was involved. And they cautioned that commercially available chocolate is loaded with calories – around 500 calories for every 100 grams – and eating too much can cause weight gain, boosting  the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

U.S. research among obese people with hypertension has found that eating potatoes every day – just plain potatoes cooked in a microwave – reduces high blood pressure without inducing weight gain. For the study, 18 hypertensive overweight/obese patients ate six to eight golf ball-size purple potatoes twice a day for 30 days. Purple potatoes were used because the pigment is rich in beneficial phytochemicals. According to the researchers, the average diastolic blood pressure dropped by 4.3 percent and the systolic pressure decreased by 3.5 percent. The majority of subjects took anti-hypertensive drugs and still had a reduction in blood pressure. None of the study participants gained weight. A similar test is planned for white potatoes, and similar results are expected.

After a meta-analysis of the results of 43 clinical trials involving 200,000 young children, British and Pakistani researchers are urging policymakers to provide vitamin A supplementation to children in low and middle income countries to prevent death and illness from conditions such as diarrhea and measles. Their analysis found vitamin A supplements reduced child mortality by 24 percent in low and middle income countries. These findings, they say, show that the benefits of vitamin A supplementation are conclusive, and further testing would be unethical. According to the authors, if the mortality risk for 190 million vitamin A deficient children were reduced by 24 percent, more than 600,000 lives would be saved each year.

A study by Canadian researchers has found that people with high cholesterol who were advised to eat cholesterol-lowering foods for six months reduced their levels of bad cholesterol more than people who were advised to eat a low saturated fat diet. The 345 participants in the study received dietary advice on either a low saturated fat diet (control) or a cholesterol-lowering foods diet that included soy protein, nuts and plant sterols. The researchers found that low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels in the control diet dropped three percent (8 mg/dL) over six months. In the cholesterol-lowering foods diet, LDL-C levels dropped anywhere from 13.1 percent (24 mg/dL) to 13.8 percent (26 mg/dL).

A study funded by the Dairy Farmers of Canada has found that milk is more effective than sports drinks or water at countering dehydration in active children during hot summer weather. The researchers at Canada’s McMaster University said that milk is better because it is a source of high-quality protein, carbohydrates, calcium and electrolytes. In addition, milk replaces sodium lost during sweating and helps the body retain fluid. The study involved children ages eight to ten who exercised in a climate chamber, then drank different beverages. They were then measured for hydration. The unpublished study will be presented at a future medical conference.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reopened the comment period for a four-year-old  proposal related to “gluten-free” food labeling. The 60-day period opened on August 3.  The FDA is also asking for comments on the results of a safety assessment of exposure to gluten for people with celiac disease, an intolerance to the protein that is found in wheat, rye, and barley. The agency proposed that foods labeled gluten-free must should contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) gluten. Validated methods of gluten detection cannot reliably detect gluten in food when there is less than 20 ppm. The threshold of less than 20 ppm also is similar to gluten-free labeling standards used by many countries, the agency said.

U.K. market research firm NPD Group reports that American consumers are becoming increasingly aware of portion control as a way to ensure a healthier diet. “Eating smaller portions” was one of 30 diet and lifestyle characteristics consumers of different age groups were asked to associate with good health. Eating smaller portions ranked 11th among all adult consumers as a healthy eating characteristic. Adults consistently rated five eating/lifestyle habits as most important: exercising regularly, eating well-balanced meals, eating all things in moderation, limiting or avoiding saturated fats/cholesterol/trans fats and drinking at least eight glasses of water daily. Generation X consumers (ages 35 to 45) ranked eating smaller portions seventh in importance.

Nestlé launched Taste of Home, a marketing campaign that targets ethnic mom-and-pop stores in Europe by providing them with Nestlé products imported from markets served by the company worldwide. Nestrade launched the Retailer Development Programme as part of the campaign and the company's efforts to reach out to small retail outlets in Austria, Belgium, and other parts of Europe. Nestlé hopes to enlist some 2,000 stores under the program that also aims to meet demand for ethnic foods and flavors, as well as for halal foods, among ethnic populations and other consumers in Europe.

A study that examined the metabolic impact of consuming fructose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and glucose found that consumption of fructose and HFCS increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. The study was launched to find out whether the U.S. recommendation that the upper limit of added sugar consumption should be 25 percent is supported by scientific evidence. Forty-eight adults were tested. Within two weeks, study participants consuming fructose or high fructose corn syrup, but not glucose, had higher concentrations of LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and a protein that leads to vascular plaques. The researchers said their findings suggest that the upper limit of 25 percent of daily calories consumed as added sugar recommended in the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines “may need to be re-evaluated."

Retail sales of  health and wellness foods and beverages in the U.S. totaled $153 billion in 2010, accounting for one fourth of global sales in the category, according to Euromonitor International. “General wellbeing” comprises the largest subcategory, accounting for 40 percent of U.S. health and wellness sales. Euromonitor says general wellbeing is popular because “it does not make any overt allusions to ‘disease’.” In fact, marketers of health and wellness products are advised to avoid mentioning disease because that “needlessly narrows down a potential mainstream audience to a select target group.” Weight management products remain the second largest sales category, but growth is stagnant; energy boosting products and products to improve digestion are being well received; but beauty-from-within foods and beverages have not yet caught on in the U.S.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced he will introduce a bill requiring the FDA to regulate the number of beverages and foods being marketed as dietary supplements, often taregting young adults. The Dietary Supplement Labeling Act would improve the information available to consumers and “curb the prevalence of drinks and foods that are masquerading as dietary supplements” that may contain potentially dangerous ingredients not approved by the FDA. Durbin said makers of dietary supplements that contain additives currently do not have to prove their products are safe before putting them on the market. A key provision of the bill is a requirement that the FDA define what a conventional food is so foods marketed as health aids could be better regulated.

Researchers from a U.S. genomics company and a Norwegian supplier of krill oil report that a diet supplemented with omega-3-rich krill oil seems to control genes in the liver associated with cholesterol metabolism and the production of glucose and fat. Scientists fed three groups of lab mice either a normal diet with soybean oil, a normal diet plus fish oil and soybean oil, or a normal diet plus Aker Biomarine’s krill oil and soybean oil. After three months, the researchers assayed 20,118 genes, finding that 4,892 genes associated with obesity and insulin resistance were significantly changed in the krill oil group, but only 192 genes in the fish oil group. Further study is needed to determine “if the gene expression patterns observed in this study have effects on metabolic disease,” they concluded.