July 2004 issue

New Issue of ARS Food & Nutrition Research Briefs Posted

New discoveries in nutrition and new developments in food freshness, food safety and related topics are reported in short summaries that appear in the latest issue of the Agricultural Research Service's Food & Nutrition Research Briefs, available online at:

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

Some highlights of the issue:

• Tomorrow's great-tasting specialty breads, waffles and noodles might be made with sorghum, a nutritious, nut-flavored grain that's free of allergy-causing gluten.
• Galaxy, a delicious new peach from ARS treefruit breeders in California, is nicknamed "the bagel peach" for its flattened, bagel-like shape.
• There's new evidence that having low levels of folate, a B vitamin, may contribute to depression, ARS-funded scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, Mass., have found.
• Americans who eat fast food may consume higher amounts of calories, fats, carbs, added sugars and protein than their non-fast-food-eating counterparts, an ARS analysis of data from 9,000 adult Americans indicates.
• Adding vitamin E to turkey feed stimulates the birds' immune systems, boosting their resistance to a foodborne pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes.
• Healthful oat compounds with the tongue-twisting name of "avenanthramides" may help prevent the buildup of plaque in arteries and thus lessen risk of heart disease.
• Meals that include fruits, vegetables, reduced-fat dairy products and whole grains--and are low in red and processed meat, refined grains, fast foods and sodas--may result in smaller gains in your Body Mass Index (or BMI), and your waistline.

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