Fruit Facts

Posts Tagged ‘fruit nutrition’

As fatness rates continue to rise, nutritional scientists in labs around the world are trying to answer the question: what fills us up?

How we can become satisfied on good foods – in other words, eat a smaller amount and feel less hungry – has become the big question,’ says obesity specialist Dr Alex Johnstone, of the Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health in Aberdeen. “.

And where the scientists tramp, food and supplement manufacturers soon follow..

Get into good habits: Tricks such as eating an apple before your meal and dining on your own can make you feel more fulfilled from your food.

Britons spent £45 million last year on ’satiety’ products designed to fill your gut and quell your appetite .

One of the first retailers on the satiety bandwagon was M&S, which early this year launched the suffer Fuller For Longer range based on Dr Johnstone’s work. The meals are high in protein, which is filling, but not high in calories.

Guava the best fruit

‘It’s one of our most popular launches because it’s an easy way to plug the hunger pangs that usually lead to diets fault,’ says M&S nutritionist Claire Hughes.

But everyday foods can plug the gap just as well; as shown by research from San Diego University’s School of train and Nutritional Sciences, which compared the feelings of completeness generated by eating plums and biscuits – and the plums amazingly, won hands down.

Two hours after eating, the volunteers given the plums feel less hungry and had less of the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin in their blood when tested.

Interestingly, taking commercial appetite suppressants may not work as well as the right foods.

The irony is that we shouldn’t actually need to worry about satiety because as babies and toddlers we are very responsive to satiety cues and ‘tend to stop eating when the biological signals put the boot in ‘, explains Marion Hetherington, professor of biopsychology at Leeds University.

But that sympathy starts to decrease from the age of around three.’ This is when the parental heaviness to ‘eat it all up’ is applied and food is offered as a reward between meals, displacing internal cues.

This parental ‘programming’ may also explain why bottle-feed babies – urged by mothers to use up the bottle – learn to override their satiety signals and put on weight more quickly, according to Child Growth Foundation figures.

As we get fatter, we have lower levels of a key ‘full-up’ hormone in the brain, known as PYY.

‘Just being overweight decreases PYY, so the satiety signals are slower to kick in,’ says Dr Rachel Batterham, who carried out the original research on the hormone.

Dr Batterham, who runs the weight-loss clinic at University College Hospital London, has shown, through brain scans, that being overweight depletes PYY production, and blunts the pleasure systems in the brain.

That means more sweet and fatty food is needed to get the same pleasant sensations from eating. And when overweight people diet, their level of the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin shoots up (a survival mechanism to give their heavy bodies the energy they demand), making them more hungry, adds Dr Batterham.

But elevated satiety, low-calorie foods can help. Here we look at the latest evidence on how you can trick your body into thinking you are full.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Eating more fruits, which is rich in vitamin E, can help the protect your brain from Alzheimer’s, according to a new study.

The research of fruit, which was published in the Archives of Neurology, discovered that getting more information about vitamin E into your diet fruit by eating fruit can offer protection from the disease.

In the study called the Rotterdam Study researchers are from the Netherlands followed 5,395 healthy men and women, aged 55 and older, for 10 years to examine the link between vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene and flavonoids with the long-term risk of dementia.

Participants whose diets persons are provided the most vitamin E were 26 per cent less likely to develop the Alzheimer’s compared to those who consumed the least.

Previous studies of vitamin E, carried out by researchers at Columbia University have similar findings.

It found that people who are ate nutrients specifically selected for brain health such as certain fruits and vegetables have a 40 per cent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared within those who did not top up their vitamin proportion with fruit.

“Diet is almost certainly the easiest way to modify the disease risk,” disease researcher Yian Gu said.

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Keep on eating fruits for your heart; don’t look ahead to cancer-prevention miracles.

Bear in mind the government’s recommendation to eat at least five serving of fruits a day to lesser your risk of cancer?

A vast nine-year study of diet and cancer, concerning nearly a half-million Europeans in 10 countries, finds only a very weak relationship between intake of fruits and cancer occurrence. Those who get an additional two servings of fruits and veggies a day lesser their cancer risk by only four percent.

It is predictable that as much as 50 percent of cancer can be vetoed through smoking cessation and improved nutritional habits, such as tumbling fat consumption and increasing fruit consumption,” say the government’s Healthy People 2010 goals”.

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The Orange fruits has shown increase in their yield in the state of Florida. It is analyzed that the outcome of the orange crop estimate has slightly increased for the month of March increasing the yield by around 2 million boxes compared to last month.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Baobab, a fruits that looks like coconut, that has twice as much calcium as milk and is very high in anti-oxidants, potassium and iron. This will not be sold as a Whole fruit as the shell is too hard to crack open, instead it will be available in cereal bars and smoothies. The fruit had not been permitted into UK because of legislation that prevents the importation of food which has not been commonly consumed in the EU before 1997. The baobab fruit won approval following heavy lobbying from PhytoTrade Africa, an organization which promotes fair trade.

Gus Le Breton, chief executive of PhytoTrade Africa, said’ “The EU decision is a crucial step to developing the global market which could be worth up to £500 million a year.” Baobab is a perfect ingredient for cereal bars and smoothies, and its well documented nutritional benefits offer manufacturers with a new opportunity to target the booming market of healthy foods. “Dozens of companies have shown interest in baobab since we submitted the application and many have already conducted initial research. Now that approval has been given, they can progress to full-scale product development.”

In its native Africa the white powdery pulp has provided health benefits for generations. The baobab (or upside-down tree, as it is also known) is fiercely guarded by villagers who allow only specially trained children to climb up its branches to collect the fruits.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Salem: Oregon State University researchers are alternating a purple tomato, a new blend of colors and nutrients. The skin is as dark as part of eggplant. But it doesn’t just look okay, it can be even better for you.

The novel pigment contains the same physiochemical that found in blueberries, which is thought to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Popularity: 3% [?]

OTTAWA – The increasing number of Canadians are getting really sick after eating bacteria-laden fresh produce, even though reported cases of food poisoning have though declined overall in the last 20 years, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Wednesday.

Although more people are focused on the healthy eating today compared to the few decades ago, the rise of food borne illnesses actually linked to fresh produce highlights the fact some food producers and also distributors might not be doing sufficient to prevent bacterial contamination, said Dr. Paul Sockett, the director of the agency’s food borne, waterborne and other zoonotic infections division.

Popularity: 13% [?]

WASHINGTON – Growers of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other nursery crops will surely gain a larger share of the U.S. farm plan under a bill unveiled by 50 U.S. representatives on Wednesday.

The so-called Eat Healthy America bill will now require federal nutrition programs to use more fruits and vegetables, offer block grants to enlarge domestic markets, expand research into “specialty” crops and also encourage land stewardship.

The bill is backed by four dozen specialty-crop groups, as well as the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association and the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance.

Popularity: 5% [?]

There has been some recent buzz in Hollywood about so-called “strawberry cocaine.” TMZ did some crack study and got the low down on the blow.

Flavored cocaine is not anything new, we’re told. Law enforcement basis tell us that since the 80s people have been trade coke in all sorts of flavors, as well as rum and cherry, and now it appears strawberry are back and all the rage.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, which strawberry flavoring is additional to the drug to give it its fruity flavor. Years ago just adding food coloring was big thing– brown and also red cocaine was the talk of the town. Theoretically, you can make or add any flavor you’d like to the drug.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Be ready to pay out more at the grocery store for your fruits and vegetables this fall.

A perfect gale has gathered in the Northwest to create higher costs for produce and higher prices for all of us.

Our booming economy is partially to blame for the higher prices you’ll pay out for apples, corn and other fresh produce this year.

Perhaps the largest element of that “perfect storm” is short of workers to pick our crops — a condition that might change the face of Washington produce forever.

Popularity: 1% [?]