Scientists in the US who undertook a large study to investigate what biological mechanisms might be behind the already established link between colorectal cancer and consumption of red and processed meat, confirmed that such a link exists and suggested the main players are three compounds: heme iron, nitrate/nitrite, and heterocyclic amines...

The humble papaya is gaining credibility in Western medicine for anticancer powers that folk cultures have recognized for generations. University of Florida researcher Nam Dang, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues in Japan have documented papaya's dramatic anticancer effect against a broad range of lab-grown tumors, including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas...

No work is known in the literature to date which provides a long-term and generalised evaluation of the health of children fed intravenously in their own home...

Americans recognize things need to change in the grocery aisle, and they support Uncle Sam's efforts to overhaul what is included in their food and on the packages. The majority also believe they are individually responsible for making the right food choices to avoid obesity, but will readily accept the government's help to be successful, according to a new survey by FoodMinds...

The Society for Nutrition Education (SNE) has partnered with the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and American Society for Nutrition (ASN) to publish a position paper, "Position of the American Dietetic Association, American Society for Nutrition, and Society for Nutrition Education: Food and Nutrition Programs for Community-Residing Older Adults," focusing on access to safe...

Prostate-specific dietary supplements should not be taken during radiation therapy treatments because they have been shown to increase the radiosensitivity of normal prostate cell lines, leading to normal tissue complications, according to a study in the March issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society ...

Children with serious intestinal problems have to be fed intravenously. Systems exist that enable intravenous feeding to be carried out at home. Mr Inaki Irastorza, paediatrician at the Cruces hospital in Bilbao, spent some 15 years analysing how serious intestinal problems in children were treated at the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London...

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a new syndrome affecting potentially thousands of hospital inpatients...

A new study from the US found that normal weight women in their 40s and older who drank a light to moderate amount of alcohol gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming obese and overweight compared to their non-drinking counterparts...

A new study that followed participants for 20 years shows both weight and risk for diabetes decreased for people in communities where fast food prices increased. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study, published in the March 8, 2010, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, also showed the reverse when fast food prices fell, then consumption, weight and diabetes risks rose...

A new study claims that having sugary drinks every day could put people at a greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. American researchers found that the excessive consumption of sugary drinks, which can contain up to 200 calories each, contributed to 130,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes and 14,000 cases of heart disease between 1990 and 2000 in the USA...

The Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) welcomed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's proposed hospital reform package. But the Association warned that without a multidisciplinary approach to implementing the reforms the Government risked 'missing the mark' in meeting patient needs...

Pregnant women are skimping on fruit and vegetables and gaining too much weight, according to a new Australian study. The research, in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics published by Wiley-Blackwell, found that expectant mothers are eating less than half the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables. And at least one in three put on more than the recommended weight gain for pregnancy...

The health risk factors of obesity and overweight in Alabamians will be the focus of a combined satellite conference and webcast March 17 from 2-3 p.m. central time. Excessive weight and obesity are major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, the No. 1 cause of death worldwide...

During the school day, children eat roughly one-third of their nutritional needs while at school. Besides lunch, breakfast and snacks may be served, providing ample opportunities for obesity-prevention strategies by offering more nutritious food...

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system - T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body...

Pediatrics researchers have identified the first major gene location responsible for a severe, often painful type of food allergy called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). In this disease, which may cause weight loss, vomiting, heartburn and swallowing difficulties, a patient may be unable to eat a wide variety of foods...

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are closely following an investigation by U.S. authorities into possible Salmonella contamination of Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP) in the United States. HVP is used as a flavour enhancer in many commercially processed foods...

There's an epidemic in progress, and it has nothing to do with the flu. A ground-breaking study published in the March 2010 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found an astonishing 59 per cent of study subjects had too little Vitamin D in their blood. Nearly a quarter of the group had serious deficiencies (less than 20 ng/ml) of this important vitamin...

The occurrence of gluten intolerance in the Finnish population has doubled in the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, about one per cent of adults in Finland had gluten intolerance, but the figure has since gone up to two per cent by the 2000s. "We've already seen a similar trend emerge earlier on where allergies and certain autoimmune disorders are concerned...