Latest ARS Food & Nutrition Research Briefs Posted

The Agricultural Research Service has posted the August 2002 Food & Nutrition Research Briefs on its website at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb

The Research Briefs present concise and timely updates about ARS research in human nutrition, food freshness and safety, and new foods.

Web visitors can search the newsletter, including past issues. They can also sign up to receive future issues of the Briefs by e-mail.

Included in the August 2002 issue:

• Besides being fun to eat, watermelon is a delicious source of lycopene--a health-promoting phytonutrient.
• Teens who eat breakfast are two to five times more likely than their breakfast-skipping counterparts to get at least two-thirds of the daily Recommended Dietary Intakes of many essential vitamins and minerals.
• Brown rice that used to require up to 50 minutes to cook now can be tender and ready to eat in only 15, if processed by a novel technique from ARS experts.
• Zinc may have a key role in keeping cell membranes intact, preliminary results of a new study suggest.
• An analysis of health data from nearly 8,400 American men and women provides new insight into the link between high levels of the amino acid homocysteine and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
• Beneficial soil-dwelling bacteria may protect tomorrow's potatoes against dry rot fungus and unwanted sprouting.

ARS is the chief scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Contact: Marcia Wood, USDA-ARS Information Staff, Beltsville, MD 20705; phone (301) 504-1662, fax (301) 504-1641, e-mail marciawood@ars.usda.gov.