An Italian study has reportedly found that the consumption of artificial sweeteners, including saccharin and aspartame, does not increase the risk of developing gastric, pancreatic or endometrial cancers. Cristina Bosetti, et al., “Artificial Sweeteners and the Risk of Gastric, Pancreatic, and Endometrial Cancers in Italy,” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention (August 1, 2009). Classifying participants as either users or non-users of artificial sweeteners, researchers compared data from 230 people with stomach cancer and 547 healthy controls; 326 people with pancreatic cancer and 652 healthy controls; and 454 people with endometrial cancer and 908 healthy controls. The results confirmed “the absence of an adverse effect of low-calorie sweetener (including aspartame) consumption on the risk of common neoplasms in the Italian population.” Although limited to Italy, this conclusion apparently supports the findings of a National Cancer Institute study involving 285,079 men and 188,905 women that found no statistical link between aspartame and leukemia,…
Category Archives Scientific/Technical Items
A recent study has reportedly claimed that the average American woman enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is 5.8 pounds heavier than someone of the same socioeconomic background who does not receive food stamps. Jay L. Zagorsky, et al., “Does the U.S. Food Stamp Program Contribute to Adult Weight Gain?”, Economics & Human Biology (July 2009). According to the researchers, “this association does not prove that the Food Stamp Program causes weight gain,” but may show that increased income, either from cash or food stamp coupons, increases food spending in general. “However, the estimates indicate that food demand is inelastic and increased food spending does not necessarily mean increased caloric intake. Even so, the program could still contribute to weight gain since people tend to overconsume products that are free,” stated the study authors. Noting that the average recipient receives approximately $80 per month in food stamp…
Scientists have reportedly restored a genetic trait to North American corn that causes the roots to emit a chemical distress signal when under attack by western corn rootworm, a beetle species known as the “billion-dollar bug” for its widespread crop destruction. Jörg Degenhardt, et al., “Restoring a maize root signal that attracts insect-killing nematodes to control a major pest,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 3, 2009. Researchers inserted oregano genes into domestic corn to reconstruct the defense mechanism, which once existed in most maize varieties and still persists in some European corn. This underground SOS apparently attracts parasitic roundworms, or nematodes, to feed upon the beetle larvae, resulting in yields with less root damage and 60 percent fewer adult beetles compared to unmodified crops. “We used a controversial approach, with genetic engineering, to enhance a very much favored [among environmentalists] approach, which is biological control,” one study author…
University of California researchers studying rural residents in California’s Central Valley have apparently found that those drinking water from private wells have a 90 percent higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease if the wells are near fields sprayed with certain pesticides. Nicole Gatto, et al., “Well Water Consumption and Parkinson’s Disease in Rural California,” Environmental Health Perspectives, July 31, 2009. Supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the study estimated potential well water contamination on the basis of agricultural application records for 26 pesticides and involved 368 cases and 341 population controls enrolled in the Parkinson’s Environment and Genes study. The researchers found that people with the disease “were more likely to have consumed private well water, and had consumed it on average 4.3 years longer” than those without the disease. The strongest link to disease was found in areas sprayed with propargite, a pesticide used mostly on…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released the results of experimental studies examining the relationship between TV food advertising and consumption. Titled “Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior,” the article appears in the July edition of Health Psychology and concludes that “food advertising on television increases automatic snacking on available foods in children and adults.” Authors Jennifer Harris, John Bargh and Kelly Brownell observed elementary-school-aged children who received a snack while watching programs that featured either food advertising or advertising for other products. The authors also followed adults exposed to (i) “food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits”; (ii) “food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits” or (iii) “no food advertising.” The adults then “tasted and evaluated a range of healthy to unhealthy snack foods.” According to the article, the children “consumed 45 percent more when exposed to food advertising,” while adults…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that mothers of premature babies “have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.” John Meeker, et al., “Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in Relation to Preterm Birth in Mexico City,” Environmental Health Perspectives, June 16, 2009. Collaborating with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM SPH) analyzed urine samples taken during the third trimester, finding that 30 women who delivered before 37 weeks gestation had “significantly higher phthalate levels” than 30 women experiencing full-term pregnancies and women in a control group. “We looked at these commonly used compounds found in consumer products based on the growing amount of animal toxicity data and since the national human data show that a large proportion of…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) at levels currently considered safe for humans can allegedly cause “significant reproductive health effects” in rats. Heather B. Adewale, et al., “Neonatal bisphenol-A exposure alters rat reproductive development and ovarian morphology without impairing activation of gonadotropin releasing hormone neurons,” Biology of Reproduction, June 17, 2009. Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and North Carolina State University reported that female rats experienced early onset puberty when given a BPA dose of 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight (µg/kg) during the first four days of life, while those exposed to BPA levels of 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg) “developed significant ovarian malformations and premature loss of their estrus cycle.” According to the lead researcher, “The 50 mg/kg level is important because it is equivalent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s [EPA’s] ‘Lowest…
A University of Louisville neurologist has published a report questioning the safety of farmed fish that are fed cattle byproducts, which could allegedly present a risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans. Robert P. Friedland, et al, “Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Aquaculture,” Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (June 2009). Friedland and his co-authors have urged government regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the safety of this common practice can be confirmed. “We have not proven that it’s possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans,” Friedland was quoted as saying. “Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited. Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows.” Although no cases of mad cow disease have been linked to eating farmed fish, the report claims that this does not…
Greek scientists have published a study in the International Journal of Clinical Practice that reportedly examines six cases of cola-induced potassium deficiency (hypokalemia) involving muscle weakness and paralysis in adults. V. Tsimihodimos, et al., “Cola-induced hypokalemia: pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical implications,” The International Journal of Clinical Practice, June 2009. Researchers with the University of Ioannina, Greece, have identified six reported occurrences since 1994 of hypokalemia in adults who consumed several liters of soda per day. “Fortunately,” stated the lead author, “all patients had a rapid and complete recovery after the discontinuation of cola ingestion and the oral or intravenous supplementation of potassium.” According to a companion editorial by Associate Professor of Medicine C.D. Packer of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the study authors “make a compelling argument that potassium depletion should be added to the long list of soft drink-related health problems.” The editorial encourages internists to start…
An animal study has reportedly claimed that dioxin “has a profound effect on breast tissue by causing mammary glands to stop their natural cycle of proliferation as early as six days into pregnancy, and lasting through mid-pregnancy.” Betina J. Lew, et al., “Activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) during different critical windows in pregnancy alters mammary epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation,” Toxicological Sciences, June 5, 2009. Researchers with the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) apparently found that in mice, dioxin exposure “caused a 50 percent decrease in new epithelial cells,” in addition to altering “the induction of milk-producing genes” and decreasing “the number of ductal branches and mature lobules in the mammary tissue.” These results built on earlier research led by corresponding author B. Paige Lawrence, who first discovered that when dioxin activates a transcription factor known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), it impairs AhR’s ability to fight…
