Another diet fad bites the dust: "Weight- and health-conscious eaters may not find much help in following the so-called low-GI diet, a new study suggests. In recent years, researchers have taken to classifying carbohydrates based on their GI, or glycemic index - a measure of the effects of a given food on blood sugar levels. High-GI foods, like white bread and potatoes, tend to produce a quick surge in blood sugar, and some studies have suggested that diets heavy in such foods can contribute to weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. Books and web sites espousing "low-GI" diets have followed suit. But not all studies have found associations between high-GI foods and elevated blood sugar and diabetes. One reason is that it's hard to translate lab findings on glycemic index to the much more complicated realm of everyday eating, according to Dr. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, the lead author of the new study... In her team's study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, there was no association between high-GI eating habits and elevated blood sugar among 813 adults who were followed over 5 years."

Jogging solo bad for your brain: "Far from being a healthy pursuit, jogging on your own could be bad for your health. New research has found that it raises stress levels and stifles the production of new brain cells. Harvard University psychology Professor Elizabeth Gould, who led the research, said: "These results suggest that, in the absence of social interaction, a normally beneficial experience can exert a potentially deleterious influence on the brain." Writing in the journal Nature, Professor Gould said her results showed that, contrary to accepted wisdom, jogging is not always good for you."




Pot blows your memory: "People who regularly smoke marijuana may find their memories growing hazy over time, a study suggests. In a study of long-term and shorter-term marijuana users, researchers in Greece found that both groups performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive abilities than a comparison group who'd only occasionally used the drug. Long-term users - who'd smoked four or more joints per week for at least 10 years - showed the greatest deficits. The findings, published in the journal Neurology on Monday, add to the conflicting body of research on the effects of marijuana on the brain. While many studies have suggested that long-time pot smoking dulls memory, attention span and mental acuity, some have found no large differences in these skills between marijuana users and non-users."

Remember -- Today's medical miracle is tomorrow's medical disaster: "Millions of people with heart disease may be able to reverse their illness and stave off heart attacks by taking higher doses of cholesterol-busting drugs, according to a landmark study. For the first time scientists have found a way of reversing the chronic build-up of fat in arteries, a development dubbed the holy grail in the fight against coronary heart disease. Patients put on intensive treatment with a cholesterollowering statin showed a significant reversal of atherosclerosis, when fatty deposits known as atheroma build up on artery walls. The process, often compared to scale forming in water pipes, causes narrowing of the blood vessels and can lead to fatal conditions including heart attacks and strokes. Until now, efforts have concentrated on slowing the progress of what was thought to be an irreversible disease. But a major study involving rosuvastatin, known by the brand name Crestor, has shown that patients given much more intense doses can reverse their coronary decline. British scientists working on the international study, presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, Georgia, said that a more aggressive use of statins appeared to halve the relative risk of heart attacks. Neal Uren, consultant cardiologist at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the only British centre involved in the trial, said that for those who had had a clinical episode, this could offer big improvements in life expectancy."

Huge tropical fruit: "A woman in Hawaii has grown the world's heaviest mango. The more than 2.25kg tropical fruit is roughly the size of a human head. Colleen Porter has a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records for growing the world's heaviest mango. She framed it - in mango wood, of course. Virginia Easton-Smith, West Hawaii agricultural extension agent for the University of Hawaii, who helped with the submission to Guinness, confirms the record. The fruit had to be weighed and documented two separate times by three people. Independent witnesses verified six weighings. Porter, who tends a small avocado and mango orchard, also took her mango to several local grocery stores to weigh it on their scales. The record-breaking fruit is a Keitt mango, which typically reach about 1kg."

HEROIC BRITISH SUPERMARKET RESISTS FOOD FAD DICTATORSHIP

And gets subjected to an "inquiry" as punishment

Tesco was under assault on two fronts last night for using its muscle as Britain's biggest supermarket to buy and hoard vast amounts of land and for boycotting a scheme to encourage healthy eating. The retail giant was attacked by MPs and the Food Standards Agency after defiantly rejecting the regulator's call yesterday to introduce "traffic light" health warnings on products. Tesco was also put on notice that it will be at the centre of an investigation by the Competition Commission into the impact of supermarket dominance on local shops and suppliers.

The Office of Fair Trading, reversing a decision made last year, said that it was likely to refer supermarkets for an inquiry that would cover claims that Tesco and the rest of the Big Four supermarkets were driving cornershops out of business. Tesco made profits of almost 2 billion pounds last year on a turnover of 34 billion pounds.

The supermarket said that it had nothing to fear from the commission, claiming that its relentless expansion was good for consumer choice. It said that it had already been through a series of investigations, including one by the commission in 2000, adding that the new inquiry was a "diversion of effort and resources". The retailer was accused of "arrogance" for its dismissal of the competition inquiry and its boycott of a "traffic light" scheme for sugar, salt and fat accepted by other supermarkets including Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Asda.

The FSA wants retailers to put the alerts on food packs to allow consumers to make informed and healthy choices. It said yesterday that ready meals, breakfast cereals, pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, sausages, pies, chicken nuggets, fish fingers, and other chicken and fish products should be the first foods with the new labels and may be on sale before the summer. Foods to be included later are biscuits, cakes, crisps, chocolate and sweets.

The FSA was scathing about the industry's attempts to derail the "traffic light" labels. A paper circulated to its board members said: "Information as adopted by Tesco and several major manufacturers is not helpful and may be misleading." Big-brand manufacturers Danone, Kellogg's Kraft, Nestl,, Pepsico and Unilever are determined to join Tesco in rejecting the voluntary scheme. They have adopted their own format for labels which includes a table showing the calories, fat, salt, saturated fat and sugar in a product. They refuse to use red symbols because they believe that consumers will be turned off by the colour.

Sue Davies, principal policy adviser at Which?, the consumer organisation, also supported "traffic light" labels and described the industry alternative as "a fudge". She said: "Can you really tell me what shopper is going to go round the supermarket making complicated calculations about the amounts of fat or salt are in each product and how that fits into their daily diet?" Steve Webb, the Lib Dem health spokesman, said: "A company the size of Tesco is in many ways as powerful as the Government. They have huge influence on our culture and what we eat. It is irresponsible for such a company to go it alone when it comes to public health. "Its attitude to competition and food labelling is symptomatic of an arrogance on the part of big supermarkets."

The Federation of Small Businesses welcomed the OFT's decision to refer the 95 billion pound grocery market to the Competition Commission after finding that a restrictive planning system and land banks meant that consumers were "harmed". Carol Undy, its chairwoman, said: "This inquiry is not a moment too soon. When supermarkets, convenience stores and branded petrol stations are considered together, there is little doubt that there is a dominant position being taken by the Big Four supermarkets."

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco group corporate and legal affairs director, said the company had nothing to fear. "The development of the UK grocery market has been good news for consumers precisely because of high levels of competition

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The child obesity panic

Panic: A new report by three British official bodies has criticised the government for a lack of progress on tackling child obesity. For example, it has taken 18 months just to agree on how obesity should be measured. The report quotes statistics suggesting that the proportion of obese children has risen from 9.6 per cent in 1995 to 13.7 per cent in 2003. By 2010, the report says that the cost of treating diseases caused by obesity across the whole population - including hypertension, heart disease and type 2 diabetes - will reach o3.6billion per year. Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, said: 'If the trend continues, this generation will be the first for many decades that doesn't live as long as their parents.'

Don't panic: While it is true that certain diseases are more common in obese adults, the vast majority of people can still expect to live into old age whatever their body shape. If fears about obesity are overstated for adults, they are even more misplaced when it comes to children.

It is by no means certain that children who are fat will go on to be fat adults. Figures suggest about 30 per cent of obese children stay that heavy in adulthood. Telling a child that being overweight means they are effectively sick may have some impact on their waistlines but is likely to be a recipe for misery in years to come. As Dr Dee Dawson, a specialist in treating eating disorders, notes: 'We should not be getting children obsessed about what they eat, how much fat and calories there is in their food, how they look. Most of them are perfectly fit and well.'

Nor are the alternatives necessarily much better. While getting some exercise, like walking regularly, seems to be beneficial, taking a lot of exercise may have little additional benefit. Dieting is not only regularly unsuccessful, but has itself been associated with health problems. As an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine noted in 1998, 'Until we have better data about the risks of being overweight and the benefits and risks of losing weight, we should remember that the cure for obesity may be worse than the condition'.

The most controversial idea, quoted regularly, is that children of this generation will have a lower life expectancy than their parents. While not impossible, it seems highly unlikely. Firstly, it assumes that obesity is the reason that very fat people tend to die younger, rather than lack of exercise, poverty, poor quality of diet or a host of other reasons. Secondly, it suggests that this one lifestyle factor could overcome the effect of all the other medical and social developments which have provided consistent rises in life expectancy. For women, life expectancy has risen every decade for the past 16 decades, and for both sexes lifespans are rising by roughly two years every decade.

If we are really concerned about child obesity, we should stop fretting about what children eat and give them more opportunity for active, independent play. However, given our increasingly risk-averse approach towards kids, there's fat chance of that.

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Farmer 'breaks' penis: "A newly married Romanian farmer fractured his penis after ogling his young wife while carrying a heavy sack of grain. Farmer Gheorghe Popa, 52, from Galati, had been moving the grain sacks to the barn when he stopped to watch his 25-year-old wife Loredana hang up the washing. He got himself over excited and dropped the sack on his erect penis, snapping vital tendons and ligaments. Doctor Nicolae Bacalbasa said: "It was a bizarre accident, and he was in a lot of pain. "We have done what we can for him but he may never regain use of the organ again, at least for sexual purposes.""

Now it's convenient suburbs that make you fat: "Suburban sprawl which sees hundreds of housing blocks designed around cul-de-sacs could be making people fatter, according to University of Queensland researchers. Professor Neville Owen, from the UQ Cancer Prevention Research Centre, is one of a group of investigators examining how changing the design of communities can improve the health of residents. They believe cul-de-sacs and low density suburban designs with low mixed use and poor connectivity may fundamentally limit the physical activity of residents. Less than half of Australians meet minimal public health exercise guidelines but research on transportation and urban planning has found factors such as population density and mixing residential with shops and other uses is strongly related to how much walking a person does. University of Adelaide Geography Professor Graeme Hugo, who is also involved in the research, said early results had shown factors including how streets were laid out influenced walking habits".


Now rhubarb is good for you: "Historically found languishing soggily under a coating of lumpy custard, rhubarb has taken on a new lease of life, thanks to its discovery by health-conscious eaters. Sales have doubled in the past year alone after the "forgotten vegetable" was championed by celebrity chefs and dieticians. Those red stems are low in carbohydrate but high in vitamin C, dietary fibre and potassium. One of the chefs responsible for the rhubarb renaissance, Antony Worrall Thompson, has featured it heavily in his two books on the GI diet. "I think the GI diet plays a part in the recent rise in demand for rhubarb," he said. "Rhubarb is very healthy and it is excellent for the GI diet because it is low in carbohydrate".

Your coffee tells who you are: "The sort of coffee you drink says a lot about who you are and where you're from. According to a report by industry analysts BIS Shrapnel, the caffe latte is the drink of choice in the inner, more affluent, suburbs of Melbourne, while the cappuccino is king in the outer suburbs. The hard-core espresso is preferred by young males and the flat white is more likely to be ordered by older drinkers. "When they go out, the older people tend to have the equivalent of what they are used to drinking at home, so a flat white is the equivalent of an instant coffee with milk," said report author Sandro Mangosi, leader of BIS Shrapnel's international food service study team. "There is a reluctance to change, which increases with age, while younger people get on with the new trend." For those looking for the next coffee craze, Dr Mangosi tips the espresso. "It won't be long and we will see the introduction of variations with straight coffee," he said. "In Italy, there are at least five types of espresso, and this is gradually developing here."


Coffee is bad for you -- of course! "Coffee drinkers who have more than three cups a day could significantly increase their chances of suffering a heart attack. Research suggests that some people who carry a particular variation of a gene cannot process caffeine as quickly as other people. Such individuals could be 60 per cent more likely to have a heart attack if they drink large amounts of coffee. It is not known how common the gene variation is in the British population. Some studies indicate that up to a third of Caucasians may carry it. Canadian scientists have discovered that people with the slower metabolism gene variation, known as *1F, run a dramatically higher risk even if they drink only two cups a day. Researchers found that heavy coffee drinkers under the age of 50 were four times as likely to have an attack compared with those who had one cup a day".