Food Research: Sugars in Western diets increase risk for breast cancer ♦ Healthy theme park meals? ♦ Are you a 'harbinger of failure?'

Dietary cocoa flavanols improve blood vessel function in patients with kidney dysfunction Individuals with failing kidneys are at increased risk of developing heart problems, and they're more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than from any other cause. Now investigators suggest that ingesting a drink rich in cocoa flavanols improved blood vessel function and reduced diastolic blood pressure in patients with kidney failure.

Healthy theme park meals? When meals at Disney World restaurants came with a fruit or vegetables instead of fries, about half of diners opted to keep the healthier option.

Are you a 'harbinger of failure?' Some consumers have an unerring knack for buying unpopular products. Amazingly, the same group of consumers has an outsized tendency to purchase all kinds of failed products, time after time, flop after flop. The study calls the people in this group "harbingers of failure" and suggests they provide a new window into consumer behavior.

Sugars in Western diets increase risk for breast cancer tumors and metastasis The high amounts of dietary sugar in the typical western diet may increase the risk of breast cancer and metastasis to the lungs.

2/2/14 Health News Cutting Sugar Saves on Health Care - Getting BPA Out of Food Saves Billions - Study Finds Youth with High Levels of HIV

Food crusaders' new challenge: cut sugar to save National Health Service  £50bn a year

The campaigners who helped reduce salt intake in British diets by 15% in seven years have a fresh target in sight. But they fear this struggle will be much tougher – and talks with the health secretary Jeremy Hunt this week could be crucial Continue Reading

Study: Replacing BPA in food products could save billions in health costs

In a first-of-its-kind study, a researcher has estimated that the health-related economic savings of removing bisphenol A from our food supply is a whopping $1.74 billion annually. And that’s a conservative estimate. “This study is a case in point of the  Continue Reading

NIH Research Network Finds Many Youth Have High Levels of HIV

More than 30 percent of young males who had sex with other males and who were subsequently enrolled in a government treatment and research network were found to have high levels of HIV, reported researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The health status of the study participants, who ranged in age from 12 to 24 years, was monitored as part of their participation in the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN). Continue Reading

12/18/2013 Health News: Restaurants NOT Following Safety Rules, Suger & Gold Detects Flu, ADHD connected to Iron

STUDIES ON FOOD SAFETY AT RESTAURANTS PRODUCE SOME UNSETTLING DATA

In a recent study of restaurant safety practices, 62 percent of restaurant workers handling raw ground beef with their bare hands did not wash up before handling other ready-to-eat foods or cooked ground beef. That was just one of numerous statistics brought to light by a series of studies on restaurant food safety practices published... Continue Reading

New Test Uses Sugar and Gold to Detect Flu Strains

Researchers have created a new test that uses sugar and gold nanoparticles to detect the influenza virus within 30 minutes, and it can even distinguish between human and avian strains.  The new flu test is based on previous work that uses "optically-based molecular recognition systems."continue reading

ADHD: Brain Iron May Be Marker

Low iron levels in the brain may signal the presence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), researchers reported here. In a small study of children and adolescents with ADHD, those who'd never taken any drugs for their condition had significantly lower levels of brain continue reading