Food Research:Food industry can help lower cardiovascular diseases by adding little seaweed to products ♦ The unwanted extras in your morning filter coffee

The unwanted extras in your morning filter coffee New research examines chemical leaching into coffee from filter coffee machines and electric kettles. The alarming results suggest that caffeine consumption is not all we have to worry about in our coffee culture.

Healthy' foods differ by individual Ever wonder why that diet didn't work? A new study tracking the blood sugar levels of 800 people over a week suggests that even if we all ate the same meal, how it's metabolized would differ from one person to another. The findings demonstrate the power of personalized nutrition in helping people identify which foods can help or hinder their health goals.

Moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy do not harm baby's IQ Women drinking and eating moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy should be reassured that they are not harming their child's intelligence.

Food industry can help lower cardiovascular diseases by adding little seaweed to products Adding seaweed to processed foods such as frozen pizzas, hot dogs and dried pasta will reduce cardiovascular diseases, concludes a new scientific article. One suggestion is to replace 5 percent of the flour in pizza dough with dried and granulated seaweed.

Sari cloth can filter cholera from water, research shows

Photo courtesy of Dr. Anwar Huq/University of Maryland

A simple method of filtering water through sari cloth can reduce

cholera incidence by nearly half.

​by Cathy Kristiansen

A simple method of using readily available sari cloth to filter pond and river water successfully reduced the incidence of cholera by nearly half in a study conducted in Bangladesh. Funded by the NIH's National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the findings may have applications in other low-resource settings. More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water and over 5 million die each year from waterborne illness, according to the WHO.

In many rural areas of Bangladesh, women use surface water for their household since it may be safer than well water, which can contain arsenic. The research team took its cue from a local practice to rid drinking water of insects and leaves by pouring it through sari cloth. Lab tests supported by the Thrasher Research Fund showed that a filter made of four layers of worn cotton material held back more than 99 percent of all cholera bacteria - using more layers or newer cloth slowed water collection too much.

"The filter is unique and useful," said Dr. Anwar Huq, who has collaborated on the project with University of Maryland colleague Dr. Rita Colwell. "It doesn't require any money or sophisticated training and the women bringing water to the house enthusiastically used the filtration, once the benefit was explained to them."

To test the filter's effectiveness, Huq and his colleagues studied about 45,000 residents, all in households with children under age five, who are typically more vulnerable to cholera. They showed the women how to use sari cloth to filter water that would be consumed or used to clean teeth, food and tableware. They followed up by visiting the village every two weeks to encourage compliance. An additional group of villages served as controls, adopting no interventions. In the households that were filtering water, cholera incidence was about half the level of the control participants and infections arising were milder, the scientists reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study also showed the practice benefited neighbors who did not filter their water, by reducing the overall incidence of cholera in the community.

In a follow-up study five years later, researchers discovered about one-third of participants continued to filter water as trained. Huq suggested repeated training and messages on TV and the radio could improve usage. He added he hopes to investigate if the filter blocks other waterborne pathogens as well, such as E. coli.